What I've Been Looking For: The Sequel
by Bluebell140
Summary: Ten years on and Troy and Gabriella are married with a family of their own, but that doesn't mean life is any less eventful. Join them, as along with the rest of the Bolton's, they go through one of the hardest times of their lives. TROYELLA
1. New Beginnings

**A/N**** – I don't own anything, other than the story line.**

**So you voted and the winner was this; What I've Been Looking For: The Sequel. Fifty percent of the votes went on this and so this is what I will write.**

**I can't guarantee it'll be as good or as long What I've Been Looking For, but I'll give it a good try.**

**In the mean time, enjoy!**

New Beginnings

Its ten years since we were last with the Bolton family and a lot of things have changed, things I think you should all know about before the story begins.

At the age of twenty three, five years after we were last with them, Troy made Gabriella an official Bolton, by proposing and then marrying her in the summer, making everyone thankful that Jack wasn't going to jump into the park's lake butt naked. Some people may say that getting married at twenty three is young and that there are too many things to go wrong, but Jack was right with his speech because Troy and Gabriella are_ it_ for each other and that getting married was only going to make their relationship stronger. Gabriella is now a fully qualified doctor, at Albuquerque General Hospital, practising in emergency medicine, especially children and enjoying every last bit of it. Troy became Jack's assistant coach at East High right after leaving university with a degree in sports education, at the moment though Troy is out injured and is at home being a full time Dad to four year old Chloe, two year old Matthew and eleven month old Oliver.

Jasmine and Jake stayed strong throughout the rest of high school and into college, where they both came out with a business degree, Jake now owning his own garage after also training to be a mechanic and Jasmine having part ownership in some local horse stables, after she and her twin became seriously interested in horses towards the end of the high school life. At the age of twenty three Jake proposed to Jasmine and a year later she became Mrs Jake Marsh. At the minute the couple are awaiting the arrival of the first child, who is due any day now, as two days ago was the official due date.

Jessica and Joe's relationship seemed to be going strong, just like her twin's, until their senior prom when Jessica found Joe kissing another girl, Jenna. As much as Joe and Jenna apologised for what they'd done, Jessie wasn't having any of it and ended it with Joe there and then, also terminating her friendship with Jenna just before she left the prom in tears. Jazzy, Lucille and Gabriella all spent many a night with a heart broken Jessie in the weeks following prom, but as the summer before the girls started college approached, she slowly returned to the old Jessie everyone knew and loved. In her sophomore year of college, studying to be a vet, Jessie met Craig and the pair soon hit it off. Craig was studying on the same business as Jazzy and Jake and now works as a car salesman in co ownership with Jake, having connected his sales area to Jake's garage. Jessica came out a fully trained vet and although that is still her passion her main job is working with Jazzy at the stables as a riding instructor and full time vet, this making her the owner to the other half of her sister's stables. A little over a year ago Craig proposed to Jessica and in a matter of a few short weeks, the pair will become Mr and Mrs Craig Hilton.

Amber is now a trained nursery nurse and absolutely loves her job and the children she works with. A little over two years ago, Amber took her car into Jake's garage to have it looked at and met one of his employees, John; the pair hit it off straight away and were soon dating. Now their relationship is as strong as ever and the pair are currently living together in an apartment a short drive away from Jack and Lucille's.

Lillie is now a trained hair dresser and is part owner of the salon in which she works. Just under a year ago, Lillie went for an evening swim after having a stressful day at work and being one of the only ones in the pool ended up having a good old chat with one of the life guards on duty. Just like her twin and John, Lillie and Pete became fast friends, with Lillie going swimming at every possible chance she got. The pair soon started dating and became a couple and although Lillie is still living at Jack and Lucille's, she does spend a large majority of her time at Pete's and it's because of this that people around them are silently predicting him asking her to move in with him in the not so distant future.

Being only twelve years old, Sophie and Sam haven't moved on in their lives quiet as much as their siblings and are still living at home with Jack and Lucille, but that doesn't mean their lives are any less exciting. Taking after his Dad and brother, Sam is a keen basket ball player and when he isn't training with his school team, can often be found practising with Troy, Jack or many of the other men now associated with the Bolton girls. Sophie on the other hand is a keen gymnast and has won many awards at competitions and like her twin, can often be found practising in the back garden.

Despite being slightly older and slower then the last time we where with them, Jack and Lucille are still in the same jobs and enjoying life to the full. They love taking care of their ever growing family and make sure they all get together at least once a week for a good catch up and lunch, usually on a Sunday, though they can't always be joined by everyone with Pete _sometimes_ being pulled into work and Gabriella with her crazy and sometimes unpredictable shifts.

Helena and Harold are now in what they like to call, 'the prime of their lives' and although they aren't getting any younger or any healthier they're still enjoying life to the full and like their son and daughter-in-law are enjoying their ever growing family.

Now that you're all up to date with the latest goings on with the Bolton family members, it's time for story to begin once again.

**TGTGTGTG**

Gabriella signed her last patient chart, before adding it to the pile, handing them over to a nurse to be filed and bidding everyone good night. Slowly she made her way to the staff locker rooms and was about to open the door when she heard her name being called. She turned around to find Jake running in her direction and she immediately perked up.

"Hey Jake, what's going on? Are Jazzy and the baby okay?" She asked, as she took her stethoscope from around her neck.

"Yeah they're fine, that's why I'm here actually. Jazzy's water's broke just before midday today and since about an hour and a half ago you are officially an Auntie to a little girl…we had a girl Gabi, I'm a Dad!" Jake's tears of joy soon returned and Gabriella was soon wrapping him in a hug, congratulating him on his baby girl.

"Why didn't any body phone and tell me she'd gone into labour, surely they all know?" Gabriella asked, as they pulled back from the hug.

"Of course they all know and people have tried phoning you, loads of times, just no one could ever get to you, they kept leaving messages with staff but you never phoned back and Jaz didn't want me to leave her so I could come and tell you, but they're both asleep up there now so I figured I'd come and tell you and see if you wanted to be the first to meet her?"

"Of course I want to be the first, just give me five minutes to get changed then I'll be out, okay?" Jake nodded his understanding and took a seat on a chair outside the locker rooms. "And I knew people had been calling, but I've just been so busy today I didn't have the chance to take any of the calls, I'm sorry Jake."

"Honestly Gabs its fine, now please hurry up and get changed, I want to get back to my girls, even if they are asleep." Gabriella chuckled at Jake's eagerness before heading into the locker rooms to quickly change.

Fifteen minutes later the pair arrived on the maternity ward just in time to see a midwife leaving Jazzy's room.

"There you are Dad, they're both awake and I've just been getting Mum comfortable with feeding, she was asking for you though so that was perfectly timed, hey Doctor Bolton."

"Hey Katie," Gabriella returned and laughed at Jake's confused look. "Most of the staff know each other round here and I've had three children of my own you know, they kinda know me up here now."

"Oh alright, I'll just check if it's alright with Jaz for you to come in, I think it will be, but you know…"

"Jake it's fine," Gabriella told him, as she took a seat on one of the chairs in a row in the hallway and rested her eyes, before Jake appeared again.

"You can come in Gabs, she's done feeding now, she was just burping her when I went in," Gabriella held a hand out to Jake, indicating she wanted to be pulled up, he obliged and led her into his wife's and new daughter's room.

Jasmine lifted her head up when the door opened and smiled when she saw Gabriella walking in. "Hey Gabs, Jake said we had a visitor, I didn't know it was you though, I thought you finished work at six tonight."

"I did, but then the boss needed to talk to me about something that happened today and then there was a large surge of patients, so I took a couple, then I had the paper work to do, but now I have a four day week end and I couldn't be happier, today was rubbish, well until Jake came and found me it was, congratulations Jazzy, she's gorgeous," Gabriella said, as she carefully leant over the small baby in her mother's arms to give Jasmine a hug.

"Thanks, she's only opened her eyes a couple of times, but they're definitely the Bolton blue, I can't believe it though Gabs. I'm so unbelievably tired, but I just wanna stay awake and watch her, I've already lost that battle once though, please tell me you felt this way as well?"

"Yep, every time, but the sleep always wins, so don't try and fight it hon, you need it believe me, both of you," Gabriella said, sending a warning glace towards Jake. "So does she have a name then? You've had the entire nine months and few days more, you must have one for her."

Jake looked to his wife, as he took a seat next to her on the bed and she gave him the nod. "This is Tabatha Rose Marsh and she weighs six pounds four ounces." Jake announced proudly, as he took his daughter from Jasmine who was already trying to fight off the sleep again.

"Liking the spiel, how many times have you said that today?" Gabriella asked, as she forced herself not to get too comfortable in the comfy hospital chair.

"We sent it under the pictures of her that we sent to everyone," Jake answered, just as the door opened and Jack and Lucille walked in.

"I think this is my 'Q' to leave," Gabriella said, as she got up from her chair, allowing Lucille to take her place after she'd given a nearly asleep Jazzy a hug.

"Don't feel like you need to leave on our account," Jack said, as he put down a big helium balloon with 'Baby Girl' written on it.

"No I need to get going anyway Dad. I'm tired, was supposed to of left work three hours before I did and though this little one has made my day, it's been pretty rubbish other than that, so I really want to get out of this place, no offence guys."

"None taken," Jasmine sleepily answered. "You'll be at Mum and Dad's Sunday though right? Having a four day weekend and all?"

"Yeah, I'll see you there," Gabriella said, as she gave every one a good bye hug and left the room and then the hospital, her need to get home becoming stronger, as she left the tears spill over from her horrible day.

**TGTGTGTG**

Troy had just finished loading the dish washer, when the front door opened and Gabriella could be heard in the hallway. He knew she wouldn't be to happy after being at work three hours longer than expected and missing the children's bedtimes, but what he didn't expect to see when she finally appeared in the kitchen was her crying.

"Brie sweetheart, what's the matter? Why are you crying lovely?" Gabriella couldn't answer Troy, as she let out a strangled sob and didn't even attempt to hide it.

"Come here sweetheart," Troy said softly, as he walked across the kitchen and took Gabriella into his arms. "It's alright sweet girl, I've got you, everything's gonna be okay." Troy wasn't sure what had upset his wife, but if must have been something serious for her to be crying as badly as she was. All he knew was that she needed him right now and so he picked her up, as if she were one of their children, and carried her through to the lounge, where he sat with her on his lap and for half an hour let her get all of her tears out of her system and simply let her calm down before he even attempted to find out what had gotten her this upset.

When Gabriella sat herself up, from leaning against his chest, and began to wipe away her tears, Troy took this as his opportunity to get her to talk. Slowly he began to run his hand up and down her back, hoping to give her encouragement when she talked, but when she started to wince and move away form the contact, he knew something was seriously wrong.

"Hey now lovely it's only me, don't worry," Troy's hand moved to Gabriella's hair, not wanting to cause her any unnecessary pain.

"I know it is Troy, that's not why I moved away," Gabriella responded, as she began to lift up the back of her t-shirt and allowing Troy to take over, slumped against him knowing what he was about to see.

"Brie what happened? Who did this to you?" Gabriella's tears began to fall again, as she remembered the day's nasty events.

Troy's fingers traced the outline of the bruise that now covered the large part of Gabriella's back. The bruise was a nasty black-y, purple in colour and was clearly causing Gabriella a lot of pain.

"Brie talk to me, how did this happen?" Troy moved Gabriella off of his lap and onto the couch, situating them so that they were both leaning sideways against the back of the couch, facing each other; Troy's hands immediately cupped his wife's face and wiped away her tears. He didn't move his hands from her face once the tears were gone though; he kept them there, his thumbs moving soothingly across her cheeks, as she told him the details of her day.

"There was a fight at work today, the two drivers from a car accident blaming the other for their family's injury, when really they were both at fault to begin with. Anyway, I was the nearest member of staff so I got in the middle of it and tried to break it up, the one guy stopped straight away, apologising and going back to his family who were still being treated, the other guy wasn't so happy. He started shouting at me, blaming me for anything and everything, but mainly for stopping him getting to this other guy. I told him that he needed to calm down or he would be removed and that wasn't going to help anybody, I knew the nurses would've called security so if he did kick off they wouldn't be fair off, apparently they were that bit too far off. He wasn't to happy when I told him he could be removed, saying he had rights and all that jazz and so he grabbed me by my scrubs and held me up against the nurses desk, they were all shouting at him but he wasn't letting go. He started bashing me against the desk, moving me away and then slamming me back against it, making sure that every time my back made contact with it, it was a different place, that's why the bruise is so big. It happened when I shouldn't have even been there Troy. I should've said no to the over time and come home to help you put the children to bed, but they were desperate so I stayed and helped. Even after it'd happened I had to stay, I had to talk to security; I didn't want the police involved. The others then made me lay with an ice pack on my back for half an hour and then I had to sign off my patient charts for the day and only then did I get to leave, three hours after I was supposed to. If Jake hadn't of come and found me to go up and see the girls, I think I'd of broken down long before I actually did, seeing little Tabatha helped me a lot though, she's so beautiful Troy."

"I know, I was sent the pictures," Troy responded, leaning his forehead against Gabriella's and taking her hands into his. "Why didn't you phone me though Brie? You know I could've easily phoned Jessie and asked her and Craig to come and sit with the little ones."

"I know, but everything moved so fast after security came and took him off of me, I didn't really get the chance to phone you. The others suggested it when they were checking me over, but I didn't see the point, I would've been heading home soon anyway and I didn't want to worry you, I didn't want to explain it to you over the phone, I wanted to be with you and tell you face to face."

"And you have and I bet you feel better for it, don't you?" Gabriella nodded and fell against Troy's shoulder, as the tears made their way back in. "Listen to me lovely, you've got four days away from that place now, you don't even have to think about it, any of it, I just want to you relax and enjoy being you, being Gabriella, not Gabriella the doctor. Now, I need to finish tidying about, but after that I'm all yours, what do you want to do before bed?"

"I want a nice, warm bubble bath, if that's okay?"

"'Course it is sweetheart. Now you head up stairs and check on the littlies, like I now you're dying to do, while I put the dishwasher on, finish tidying around and lock up and then I'll meet you in our room and I'll run you a nice bath and_ then_ I might even join you, but only if I can have a kiss? I didn't get one when you came in," Gabriella smiled at Troy's ability to cheer her up and make her forget, as she lifted her head from his shoulder and gave him his, kiss, before heading upstairs to check on the three little people who really did light up her world.

**TGTGTGTG**

"I think it's about time we got out babe; if we stay in here much longer we'll turn into a pair of prunes." Gabriella groaned and sunk further into the water, despite the fact it had lost its original temperature a long time ago.

Troy had stuck to his word and run Gabriella a nice warm bath and _had_ then joined her, pulling her so her back rested against his front and he was able to dote over her every need.

"Well at least let me get out, you might be able to sit in cold bath water, but I certainly can't, lean forward sweetheart," slowly Gabriella leaned forward and allowed Troy to get out, before moving backwards and resting against the back of the Jacuzzi bath that was in their en-suite bathroom. "Okay listen, you can lay in that cold water while I get changed and then get you some painkillers, if that's what you wish to do, but when I come back you're getting out Gabs, you probably shouldn't be in there now as it is, alright?" Gabriella nodded and closed her eyes, as she rested her head back against the bath. Truth was she was already slightly cold, but her back was causing her a lot of pain right now and the more she moved, the more it hurt, so staying where she was seemed like the best idea. But Troy had gone to get her painkillers, so her pain must be showing and getting out of the bath didn't seem so bad, she reasoned, she would get to cuddle down in bed with Troy after all.

"Okay Mrs Bolton," Troy said, as he reappeared in their bathroom, dressed with a glass of water and painkillers in hand. "Let's get these painkillers in you so they can start taking affect and then we need to get you out of there, dried off, changed and then we can cuddle down in bed, sound good?"

Gabriella nodded and managed to sit up enough to take the painkillers, before holding her hands out to Troy. "You're gonna have to help me babe," Gabriella said, softly. "I'm not gonna lie to you and say my back doesn't hurt right now because you know it does, so can you please help me get up, I'm really not feeling great right now." Troy placed the towel he was holding over his shoulder and ignoring Gabriella's raised hands, gently put his under her armpits and lifter her out of the bath and softly placed her onto her feet, before taking the towel off of his shoulder and wrapping it round her. Being careful of her bruise, Troy then picked Gabriella up bridal style and carried her through to their room, where he placed her on the bed and ever so gently, over the next ten minutes, helped Gabriella to get dried up and changed, all the while treating her like she were the most precious gem in the world.

**TGTGTGTG**

"Are you sure you're comfortable enough? You don't want an ice pack or a pillow to lay on or something?"

"Troy I'm fine, honestly I am, I just wanna sleep now and you know that all I need to do that is you, so please just stop worrying and lay down so I can use you as my pillow." Troy smiled softly at his wife, as he turned off the lamp on the bedside table and laid down in bed next to her, pulling her into his arms and allowing her to use him as her pillow.

"You may say you're fine but that still doesn't mean you're allowed to move from this bed without my help," Troy warned Gabriella, who was well on her way to sleep. "If you need to get up, for whatever reason, during the night you wake me and I'll help you, alright? And if you happened to hear one of the littlies before me, then you wake me up and I'll go and see to them, your back is making you unsteady on your feet so don't even attempt to move without my help, you got it?"

"Yes Troy, now can we please go to sleep, I really am tired." Troy chuckled, as Gabriella followed up her sentence with a yawn, as if to prove her point, before she nuzzled her nose against his t-shirt covered chest and let sleep pull her into it's grasps, knowing that whatever tomorrow sent her way, it's was definitely going to bed a whole lot better than today.

**TGTGTGTG**

**Well there it is guys; I really hope you liked it!**

**I have no idea how good or how long this story is going to bed, but the only way it's going to continue is of you all review and tell me what you think, after all this is what fifty percent of the vote went to.**

**PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW! THANK YOU!**


	2. Weekend Family Fun

**Well it seems that you all liked the first chapter, so here's the second one! Enjoy!**

Weekend Family Fun

Something, or more likely someone, was trying to wake her up. As much as she had been trying to ignore them and go back to sleep, they were running their hands through her hair and down her back, something that always soothed her, but today was slowly bringing her from her peaceful sleep.

Opening her eyes, Gabriella found Troy laying on his side of the bed, fully dressed, his left hand propping his head up, while his right continued to trail up and down her back and through her hair.

"Hey," she greeted him, her voice a little hoarse from just waking up.

"Hey beautiful," Troy replied, as he moved his left hand from under his head so he could lay it down on his pillow and be eye to eye with his wife. "How you feeling this morning?"

"Sore and achy," Gabriella answered honestly, knowing that lying to Troy would be no use, he always found out the truth eventually.

"I thought as much, that's one nasty bruise you gained yourself there, but don't worry, I came prepared," Troy said, sitting up and picking up two tablets and a glass of water from his bedside table and holding them out to Gabriella, who slowly sat and gratefully took them from him.

"Thanks," she said to him after she'd drunk the rest of the water and had settled herself into his arms, as they both lay back down. "Troy?"

"Yeah?"

"Where are the children?"

"Well, Chloe is at nursery and Matty and Oli are with Mum, she's going to pick Chloe up from nursery at half twelve as well and then take them to see Jake, Jazzy and Tabatha 'cause the girls got discharged early this morning."

"Oh okay, did you do all that while I was asleep?"

"Yup, Oli woke up at six forty five, so I got him dressed and we played with his cars for half an hour 'til Matty woke up and then we went in his room and repeated the process and then when I went in to wake up Chloe at about ten to eight she was already awake and starting to get dressed. She let me do her hair, but she was really quiet this morning, she barely spoke to the boys and only did me when she had to."

"That's strange," Gabriella replied. "I know she's a quiet girl, but she's not normally quiet around us and the boys, we'll have to see what she's like later. When are we getting them back?"

"Well they all wanted to see Grandpa, so sometime between Dad getting home from work and Mum wanting to start tea, unless she keeps them for that, I dunno, she said she'd phone when she's on her way, either way, so we're good and we have the _whole_ day to ourselves."

"Really? Do we have plans?" Gabriella asked, as she relaxed more into Troy's embrace, happy that she's taken the pain killers before getting out of bed.

"Yep, I was thinking, although I may regret it later, that we could go shopping. It's Amber and Lillie's birthday soon, then Oli's and then Christmas, so we need to start shopping for that, but of course yours is coming up as well, so while we're there, maybe you can hint at some things you want, so I know what me and the littlies can give you, 'cause I really have no idea Gabs."

Gabriella laughed. "Well at least you're being honest and yes shopping sounds great, though while we're at it I think we should get something for Tabatha, I went and saw them straight from work so I didn't take anything and then Dad walked in with a balloon making me feel worse, I'm not sure what we should get her, but we definitely need to get her something."

"Okay, so now that we know what we're doing for the day, why don't you give me your breakfast order and I'll make it while you're getting dressed. So Dr Bolton, what will it be? Waffles or pancakes?"

"Erm…waffles and fruit sounds great please hon, but I'm buying lunch, you always sort out breakfast and then buy lunch, well not today dearest hubby, so don't even try and argue with me."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Troy answered, as he gave Gabriella a quick peck to the lips before getting up and heading off downstairs to make her breakfast.

**TGTGTGTG**

"Brie, they're back," Troy shouted up the stairs where Gabriella was finishing putting away their shopping in their bedroom.

The pair had had a great day shopping, even with their little tiff because Troy somehow managed to pay for lunch. They bought everything they needed for up and coming birthdays, made a good start on their Christmas shopping and Gabriella even managed to give Troy a few good ideas on what she wanted for her birthday.

Twenty minutes ago Lucille had phone to say she and Jack were now on the way with the children, but while on the phone to Troy, she had also expressed her concern for how quiet Chloe had been all day, apparently she barely spoke to anyone at nursery, apart from her favourite assistant, Shelley. This information, along with Chloe's quietness this morning told Troy and Gabriella something was obviously bothering their daughter and that they would _have_ to talk to her later.

Troy opened the front door just as Gabriella came down the stairs and Jack pulled up out front. Leaving Gabriella to stand in the doorway, Troy went down to help unbuckle the children from the car and to get their car seats back. Troy received a sloppy kiss from Oliver, as he took him out and handed him to Lucille, who then also received an equally sloppy kiss.

Unbuckling Chloe, Troy expected a big hug and kiss but didn't get either, as soon as he'd lifted her from the car, she ran straight towards the house, straight towards Gabriella. Troy watched as Gabriella took their daughter into her arms and held her close, having not seen her since before work yesterday morning.

Seeing as Jack had taken care of Matthew and his car seat, Troy turned his attention back to removing the other car seats and putting them back in his car.

Ten minutes later, after fixing the car seats back into his car and waving off his parents, Troy finally went back inside. He found his family in the lounge, the television on quietly in the background, as the two boys played together with their cars and Gabriella sat on the couch with Chloe cuddled up in her lap. He walked over and took a seat next to his girls and it was only then that he realised that Chloe was crying against Gabriella's chest, as she did the best to stop their daughter's tears.

"Chloe I need you to stop crying for me honey so that you can tell me what's wrong and then Daddy and I will try and make it all better." Gabriella rocked her daughter from side to side, as she tried her best to comfort her.

"Daddy?" Chloe asked, lifting her head from against Gabriella's chest, giving her the chance to wipe away her daughter's tears.

"Yeah Daddy's behind you sweetie," Gabriella told Chloe, who immediately turned around and reach out for Troy who pulled her across into his lap, while moving closer to Gabriella so that Chloe's legs were resting in her lap, but also enabled him to wrap an arm around them both.

"Okay princess, why don't you tell us what's gotten you so upset today?" Chloe looked from Troy to Gabriella and then from Gabriella to Troy, as if seeking reassurance, something they both gave her in the form of a smile.

"I don't like it when you're sad," Chloe said softly while looking at Gabriella.

"What do you mean sweetie?" Gabriella asked, as she allowed Chloe to twist her wedding and engagement rings around her finger.

"Last night," Chloe answered while looking up at Troy.

"Chloe did you get up after I put you to bed last night?" Chloe nodded at her Dad. "Why sweetie?"

"I wanted to see Mummy and I heard the door so I got up to come and hug her," Chloe answered honestly.

"Sweetie, did you see me crying last night?" Chloe only nodded, as more tears rolled down her cheeks, but they were immediately wiped away by Troy. "Honey I just had a really bad day at work yesterday and needed to cry a little and get a hug from Daddy to make it all better, like you're doing now. We don't like seeing you crying Chloe, especially over me, I'm okay now."

"Promise?" Chloe asked, still absentmindedly playing with Gabriella's rings.

"I promise honey," Gabriella replied, as she reached forward and gave Chloe a hug, only for Troy to wrap his arms tightly around them both, claiming a group hug was needed.

"So what do you say to pizza for tea princess? You can choose some of the toppings." Chloe nodded enthusiastically, as she moved back over to Gabriella's lap for a proper mother daughter hug.

"What about you boys?" Troy asked his sons, who both stopped their playing to look at their Dad. "Want pizza for tea?" The boys both copied Chloe's enthusiastic nodding and after trying to remember what everybody wanted, Troy headed off to go and order, while Gabriella and Chloe joined the boys on the floor to play race cars, something that soon became a tickling fight when Troy finished ordering in.

**TGTGTGTG**

"Uncle Sam! Uncle Sam! Come in the sea with me?" Chloe asked, after being told she'd waited long enough after eating her sandwich.

Sam paused up from his sandcastle making with Matthew to answer Chloe. "I don't see why not, you wanna come as well Matty?"

"Gwampa come?"

"I don't know bud, I'll ask him." Sam responded, knowing Jack would do just about anything for his Grandchildren anyway.

"Dad, Matty wants you to come in the sea with us, you game?" Sam asked, his Dad who was making sand castles with Oliver.

"Yeah I'm game, you want to come in the sea with us Oli?"

"No, no, no," Oliver answered, clearly quiet happy with his bucket and spade.

"Okay then you stay and play with Auntie Sophie, let's go then guys," Jack got up and picked up Matty; while Sam picked up Chloe and went charging off towards the sea.

"You not gonna join them Troy?" Sophie asked, as she helped Oliver to refill his bucket with sand.

"Nope, I'm good where I'm at thanks," Troy responded, as he pulled Gabriella further back against his chest, as she sat contently between his legs.

"I'm so glad I was only little when you two got together, you're all lovey dovey now, I don't even wanna know what you were like when you first got together."

"We were a very reserved pair thank you very much," Troy told his youngest sister, while pulling a face at Oli who in turn completely missed putting his next spade full of sand into the bucket, he wasn't fazed though, just started dug the spade back in and this time the sand made the bucket.

"Yeah it wasn't long after I moved in with you Soph, so I wasn't exactly up for being overly lovey dovey in public or just around the house, as time went on yeah, I got more confident with things, but when we first got together I was really reserved."

Sophie laughed slightly. "I don't remember much from when you moved in Gabs, only that you were someone new for me to play with; I didn't really understand anything else."

"It's okay Soph, I wouldn't expect you to remember much, other than that I played with you, but that was good for me sometimes as well, being with you and Sam I didn't have to talk about my feelings and sometimes I would play with you on purpose just to forget for a bit and have fun instead, you two never failed to make me laugh or smile, even when I was at my lowest."

"I never knew that Gabs, thanks for telling me," Sophie replied, happy that her sister-in-law had shared something like this with her.

Gabriella simply shrugged not wanting to take the conversation any further, before grabbing her purse from her bag and standing up. "Come with me and get ice creams?" She asked Sophie, holding her hand out to her. "Troy can play with Oli and Mum can be ready with towels for when the others get back, please?" Sophie nodded and ruffled Oliver's hair quickly before taking Gabriella's offered hand and linking arms with her as they headed up the beach and towards the ice cream van.

**TGTGTGTG**

"Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama," Oliver chanted the following afternoon, as he crawled around Jack and Lucille's house trying to find Gabriella. He knew where she was, he'd just left that room to try and find the toy he wanted and now that he'd found it he wanted to give it to Gabriella, the only problem being he couldn't seem to remember where Gabriella was.

Getting bored of crawling around and trying to find his Mum, Oliver plopped himself down in the hall way out side the dining room, where Gabriella and the rest of the adults were all sat talking, and proceeded to play with the small toy piano he'd gone to collect.

"Oli you little Wally, what are you doing sat in the hallway?" Craig, who'd, left the dining room to go to the toilet, asked as he crouched down in front of the little boy, who stopped his playing and smiled up at him.

"Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama," Oliver once again chanted and emphasised each word with a noise from his toy.

"Mama's in the dining room where you left her," Craig supplied, as he stood up with Oli and his toy in his arms and walked him into the dining room. "See," He told Oli, making everyone in the room look at them. "She's still in her chair, right where you left her." Everyone laughed at Oliver's confused face, as he was passed from Craig to Gabriella, who thanked Craig for picking him up.

"Did you forget where you left me, little guy?" Gabriella asked Oli, who didn't reply, but hit some buttons on his toy, causing it to make a noise and wake up a sleeping Tabatha. "Okay you noisy thing, we'll go and play in the lounge with the others before you disturb Tabby even more," Gabriella said, as she stood up with Oliver and headed for the door. "Say come on Daddy."

Oliver laughed. "Dada come," Oli commanded and sure enough Troy got up and followed, making everyone laugh at just how much he was wrapped around his youngest child's little finger.

"So Jakey boy, how sleep deprived do you feel right now?" Troy asked, as Jake came into the lounge and flopped down onto the couch next to Troy and Gabriella.

"Eh, I'm tired, but not as much as Jazz. She always gets to Tabby before I do, even if I'm lying awake in bed, she gets up and gets her and when I go through and offer to burp her and change her, Jazz just tells me to go back to bed and that she'll do it. I feel so helpless because she's so tired, but she won't let me help her. I think she thinks, that because she's the one that has to do the feeding she has to do it all, but she doesn't, I don't want her to, but I don't know how else to help her without upsetting her."

"I did the same thing," Gabriella confessed, as she cuddled herself closer to Troy. "But Troy worked through it and helped me out; you can do the same Jake."

"How? I'm seriously willing to try anything, Tabby is only three days old, if things carry on Jazzy's just gonna wear herself out."

"Whenever Chloe would wake us up crying, I wouldn't even let Brie leave the bed. I'd go and get her and bring her back to Brie in her our bed so that she could feed her there, all she needed to do for that was sit up and arrange Chloe against her. Then when she was done feeding her I'd take her back and burp her and change her and then rock until she was asleep again, by the time I got back to our room Brie was already asleep or well on her way to it."

"That sounds great to me, but how do I get her to let me go and get Tabs, how do I convince her to stay where she is?"

"Talk to her before you go to bed, set down ground rules, tell her that when Tabatha starts crying she's not allowed to leave the bed, tell her you'll bring Tabby to her. If she tries to argue, don't let her, there's no arguments to be had because that's the way it's gonna work. You'll be fine Jake, you're both new at this, everyone takes time to adjust after their first child is born, you'll get there eventually, it just takes time."

"I'll try it tonight and if it works, I will love you forever Troy," Jake responded making everyone laugh and him lean back and close his eyes for a minute. It was only a minute because Oliver decided he needed to disturb his quiet time.

"UG!" Oli announced loudly and pulled on Jake's trouser leg until he picked him up and settled him on his lap, allowing Oliver to wrap his tiny arms around his Uncle and cuddle him close.

"And that my dear family is why everyone needs a toddler," Gabriella announced making everyone laugh and causing Jake to bounce his legs making Oliver laugh and giving everyone a little bit of his baby Bolton joy.

**TGTGTGTG**

**It's a little later than planned and I'm sorry but I've been having a little trouble writing recently, it's in my head but simply didn't want to come out :)**

**I…erm, cried myself to sleep last night guys and so my day has been pretty rubbish, I'm not asking for sympathy just for you to give me some lovely reviews about my hopefully lovely chapter!**

**PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW! THANK YOU!**


	3. Doctor Bolton

**Thanks for the lovely reviews guys, you all helped to feel better and things haven't been so bad for me since then, they're still there, but are simply under control. **

**Here's the next one for you all, enjoy!**

Doctor Bolton

The shrill cries of their new born baby girl ran through their house at three in the morning and immediately Jake sprang into action. Rolling over, he stopped his wife from leaving the bed and simply told her to be awake enough to feed Tabby, before throwing away the covers and walking into his daughter's nursery.

"Hey now baby girl, stop those tears, Daddy's here now, shush, shush, shush," Jake whispered, as he let the side down on the cot and lifted his baby girl into his arms. Cradling Tabatha in his arms, he walked back to the master bedroom where Jasmine was sitting up leaning against the headboard, having arranged her pillows to rest against. "Here," Jake said, as she sat on the side of the bed next to Jazzy and handed her Tabby, who she quickly got settled and happy with eating.

Walking back to his side of the bed, Jake settled himself back under the covers and after arranging his pillows like Jazzy's, wrapped his right arm around her and gently persuaded her to rest her tired body against him. "This is how it's gonna work from now on," he told her softly, as his left arm wrapped under Tabatha to help support her weight and run his fingers through her wispy strands of hair.

"What do you mean?" Jasmine asked, as she rested her head on Jake's shoulder.

"When she wakes up during the night, you aren't allowed to get up and tend to her. She'll most likely be hungry, so I'll go and get her and bring her back to you so that you can feed her in here, meaning all you really need to do is sit yourself up and get comfy with her. Then when she's done, I'll burp her and change her and put her back to bed and while I'm doing that you can go back to sleep, or at least be well on your way."

"Babe I can't let you do that, you'll be really tired, especially when you go back to work."

"Sweetheart I own the place, I can go for half days, mornings or afternoons and then sleep some more when I'm not there. Jazz you only gave birth less than four days ago, you need your rest."

"Okay, I'll go with this for now because I know you're not taking no for an answer and to be honest all I really want to do is sleep, but in a few more days when I've recovered from the birth and in a few more weeks, when she's older and starts sleeping better at night, then I'm getting up as well, especially if you become busy at work, you hearing me here?"

"How did this go from _me_ setting down some ground rules to _you_ setting down some ground rules?" Jake asked, as Tabatha decided she was finished feeding and he got up to take her from Jazzy.

Jasmine just shrugged. "I'm special like that," she told him, as she got out of bed. "I need to pee so you go and deal with her and then come back quickly, will ya? I wanna use you as my pillow." Jake chuckled at Jasmine, as she pecked him on the lips on her way to the bathroom and he took his precious baby girl back through to her nursery.

**TGTGTGTG**

Troy hadn't wanted her to go back, he thought she was still in too much pain to do that, but she'd told him she was fine and that if she wasn't, her colleagues would soon let him know. Reluctantly he'd let her go and so now she was sitting at the nurse's desk, occasionally spinning round on her chair, as she waited for someone to give her something to do.

She's arrived at work at eight and although she hadn't expected it to be busy, she'd expected to have things to do, she didn't expect to be sitting around and doing simple nurses jobs all morning, don't get her wrong, she loved the work of the nurses, but she trained to be a doctor and that's the work load she wanted to do. Why wasn't she doing her proper work load?

Well, her colleagues all knew how badly she'd been hurt the other day and knew Gabriella well enough to know that she was probably still in a fair bit of pain, even though she did insist that she was fine and that the painkillers_ were _doing their job, so they'd decided that she was gonna get the easiest jobs they could give her, without her getting suspicious or incredibly bored. Although Gabriella had started to become suspicious after not being allowed to take the lead on another patient that had been brought in, she had then sat herself on one of the spinning office chairs at the nurse's desk, fortunately for her work mates, getting distracted by the up-y down-y, spinning chair.

"Kelllyyy," Gabriella whined at the senior staff nurse who was approaching the station.

"Yessssss," Kelly responded, giving another nurse some bloods to send off to the lab.

"You must have something for me to do by now, I'm bored and getting kinda dizzy," Kelly laughed at Gabriella before handing her a patients file, which Gabriella didn't bother to open, but did hug to her chest as she jumped from her chair, keeping a tight grip on it in case Kelly decide to take it away again.

"She's in cubicle twelve, take all the time you need," Gabriella nodded and walked away, wondering why Kelly had said what she did, but not stopping long enough to question her.

Pulling back the curtain to cubicle twelve, Gabriella began to open the folder in her hands, but soon stopped when she looked up to greet her patient. There, sat on the bed, with her knees pulled to her chest, her chin resting upon them, her breathing uneasy, tears streaming down her face while her eyes darted in every which direction, was a very frightened looking Sophie Bolton.

Silently Gabriella stepped into the cubicle and closed the curtain behind her, before setting down Sophie's file and sitting down on the bed. Sophie moved from he curled up position and slowly moved to sit next to her sister in law, who immediately gathered her into her arms and let her soak her scrubs with her tears.

After a few minutes the tears hadn't stopped causing Sophie's breathing to become hard and Gabriella's doctoring instincts to kick in.

"Sophie listen to me sweetheart, I want to help you with your breathing, but I need you to sit back on the bed for that, can you do that for me?" Sophie nodded, unable to talk and moved out of Gabriella's arms until she was leaning back against the head of the bed. Gabriella herself moved off of the bed and went behind it momentarily, before appearing back in front of Sophie with something in her hands.

"This is an oxygen mask, I'm gonna place this elastic part around the back of your head to hold it in place and then it will cover your mouth and nose and help with your breathing, you okay with that?" Sophie nodded and lifted her head up from the bed, allowing Gabriella to secure the mask, before she rested back against the bed. "Okay honey, I'm gonna go and speak to one of the nurses, Kelly, about something, but I'll right back ok and when I am I'll see what I can do to help you alright? You just rest your eyes for a bit and let the oxygen take affect and if you need anything don't be afraid to shout or make some noise to get someone's attention, alright?" Sophie once again nodded and closed her eyes, as she listened to the curtains surrounding her cubicle open and close.

"Kelly," Gabriella called, as she approached the nurse's station. "Sophie was brought in by ambulance from school, so have they contacted you or Mum or Dad? Do we even know what happened? 'Cause I doubt she's gonna tell me anytime soon."

"The paramedics that brought her in said the school had tried phoning both Jack and Lucille, but couldn't make contact with either or them, but because they knew she would be coming here they weren't so worried. They were worried about the fact that at the time they couldn't find Sam and although they were going to look for him, they knew he would probably find out before they found him. Either way Sam must now know because your phone, which you left on the desk, has been going off non stop and every time it was him, I answered it in the end and told him that Sophie was in good hands with you and that you'd get back to him when you knew more. We don't really know what happened to her, all we know is that she appeared at the school nurse's office with blood pouring from a large cut in her arm and with great difficulty breathing, so they found for an ambulance, other than that we have no clue and she hasn't spoken to anyone so it's all down to you Gabs, sorry."

"Okay, thanks for answering Sam's call; did he say anything about Mum and Dad?"

"I told him that you would contact them later but not to worry for now because Sophie would be absolutely fine with you, I hope that's okay."

"Yeah that's fine, thanks Kelly. She's on oxygen at the minute 'cause her breathing got bad with the crying, I saw the bandages on her arm but didn't even think about the injury underneath. I'm gonna go back and see if I can find out what happened and then see what injuries she's got, I may need your help if needles are involved though, she's completely petrified of them."

"Okay well if you need me, give me a shout or whatever, I won't be far," Gabriella gave Kelly a quick hug before heading back to Sophie, hoping the young girl would tell her the truth.

**TGTGTGTG**

"Okay," Gabriella said, as she stepped back into Sophie's cubicle an hour or so later, just as Kelly was helping Sophie back onto the bed after their visit to x-ray. "I just got off the phone with your principle who says they've got the two girls who were involved and the one you said did have some scissors with her, so you're right with what you said hon."

Sophie had opened up to Gabriella when she came back and had told her that two girls in her classes cornered her in the toilets and after pinning her to the wall and creating a large gash in her arm with something sharp, had then pushed her to the floor and given her a few kicks in the ribs and stomach, just to make sure she wouldn't fight back. They'd then left Sophie scared and injured on the toilet floors, in the hope she wouldn't be found and would then pass out through the loss of blood, but Sophie had other ideas.

Ignoring the immense pain she was in, Sophie had pushed herself up from the ground and after throwing her bag over her shoulder, she'd cradled her bleeding left arm to her body and had slowly made her way to the nurse's office, where she was immediately told that everything would be okay.

"Thanks Gabs, I'm sorry for causing so much trouble," Sophie responded, as she settled herself back against the bed.

"You've been no trouble at all honey, so don't you even think that you are. I spoke to Mum as well, she's worried about you and what's happened, but she's happy that you're with me and is gonna try and get off of work early so that we can talk when I take you home." Sophie smiled faintly, as she took the oxygen mask Kelly was offering her and held it back over her nose and mouth. "Before we get to leave here though, we need to sort out your arm and that means stitches, which unfortunately does need to involve needles Soph."

"Are you gonna do them?" Sophie asked, moving the oxygen mask away from her face.

"Yeah sweetie, I'll be doing the stitches and Kelly is gonna stay and hold your other hand and talk to you so you're not look at what I'm doing, alright?" Sophie nodded and turned to look at Kelly.

"If I squeeze your hand to hard you need to tell me 'cause I really hate needles."

"It's okay honey, you squeeze as hard as you like, okay?" Sophie nodded and lifted the oxygen mask back over her face before giving Gabriella the go ahead.

"Okay sweetie, sharp scratch coming up."

**TGTGTGTG**

"I just don't understand why they'd do that to her Gabs? She hasn't done anything to them, to anyone in fact and yet she's gonna end up with a scar and is off school for a week or so because they broke two of her ribs and bruised the others, how is that even fair?"

"Troy, please just calm down. Sophie is going to be alright, Mum and Dad will make sure of that and as for those girls, they've been kicked out of the school, they can't get to her or hurt her again, so please just calm down and come back through to the lounge," Troy nodded and after a quick hug and kiss from Gabriella the pair headed back through to the lounge.

Lucille had phoned Troy after Gabriella had taken Sophie home and to say he wasn't happy about what had happened to Sophie was an understatement. Lucille and then Gabriella had managed to calm him down, but they all knew he wouldn't be happy until he saw Sophie for himself, sure he'd phoned her and she'd reassured him, but he wouldn't be happy until he saw her tomorrow evening, when everyone gathered at Jack and Lucille's to celebrate Amber and Lillie's birthday.

Arriving back in the lounge the couple found their children taking all of the pillows and cushioned seat parts off of the couch and piling them up on the floor.

"What's going on in here then?" Gabriella asked, as Chloe and Matthew stopped their actions and Oliver stared innocently up at his parents.

"The floor's hard," Chloe answered with a supporting nod from Matty, while Oliver went about the task of taking of his trousers.

"So you decided to pull apart the couch?" Troy asked, as he took a seat on the edge of the now rather uncomfortable couch.

"Soft," Matty answered, as he wiggled his way in between Troy's legs and waited until he pulled him up onto his lap.

"I know it's soft buddy, that's why Mummy and I brought it, but it's supposed to be a soft sofa, not a soft mess on the living room floor." Matthew simply shrugged at his father, before moving off of his lap and onto the couch, where he then stood up and jumped off of the couch, landing onto of the big pile of pillows and cushions.

"Oh so that's what this is for, why didn't you just say so?" Chloe and Matthew laughed, as Troy moved from the couch and onto their soft mountain, where he then proceeded to tickle them both until they were breathless. "Okay so here's the deal, you can only play this game when me or Mummy says so and are in here with you, no other time, you hearing me here?" The oldest two Bolton children nodded and left Troy's grasps to climb back onto the couch and begin their jumping fun.

**TGTGTGTG**

"And they're all asleep," Troy said, as he walked back into the lounge to find that Gabriella had finished putting the couch back together and was now flopped out on it, face down.

"You alright Brie?" Troy asked, as he knelt down beside the couch next to Gabriella's head.

"Yeah, my backs just a little sore is all," Gabriella answered truthfully, as she moved her arms to fold them under her head and use them as a pillow.

"You want a massage?"

"You offering?" Troy didn't answered verbally, but moved so that he was straddling Gabriella's thighs and began to massage her back through her pyjama top she'd changed into while he finished tucking in the children.

"So I'm dropping you off at work tomorrow before I take Chloe to nursery and then we're gonna go grocery shopping and then probably pick Chloe up and get some lunch, maybe come back here, before that I dunno and then I'll come pick you up at eight and take you over to Mum and Dad's where the littlies will already be, right?"

"Bang on," Gabriella answered, her eyes closed in contentment over Troy's massaging abilities.

"Okay Doctor Bolton, how about we go and cuddle down in bed and watch a movie and I'll find one of those heat pad things to go on your back, sound good?"

"Very," Gabriella answered, as she waited for Troy to get off of her, before taking his offered hand and letting him lead her through to the kitchen, where he located a heat pad and placed it in the microwave. He took it out sixty seconds later and handed it to Gabriella, who sat smirking on one of the kitchen stools.

"What?" He asked her, as he took her hand and started leading her up the stairs, turning the lights off on the way.

"Nothing, it just makes me laugh when you call me Doctor Bolton, it reminds me that I actually made it out of med school."

"Of course you made it out of med school, you're amazing," Troy said, as they made it to their bedroom and after a quick trip to the bathroom, flopped down in bed. "You're Doctor Bolton for the rest of your life now on Gabs, get used to it, you're the one and only."

**TGTGTGTG**

**So it's slightly shorter than usual, but who cares, it's an update, deal with it!**

**PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW! THANK YOU!**


	4. Celebrating

**Thanks for all the reviews guys; they really make me smile :)**

**Like I said when I started this story, I'm not sure how long it's going to be, it all depends on how well it's received and when my big story line comes into play, at the minute I'm thinking about ten chapters, but as always things could change. For today though, this chapter is just going to be purely fluffy family stuff, I think, I write these author notes before the chapter, so anything could happen between now and the end of the story, I don't write these things in a day, sometimes it's over a week, sometimes a couple of days, but for now, we'll just have to wait and see!**

**Anyway, here's chapter four for you, enjoy!**

Celebrating

"Hey Troy," Kelly greeted her colleagues husband, as he appeared at the nurse's station on Wednesday evening, ready to pick Gabriella up.

"Hey Kelly, how are you?"

"I'm getting there, today's just been one of those crazy days in here, I'm glad I've only got an hour left, I'm _really_ glad though that Gabi's finishing now, she's had a really tough day today."

"Yeah? How come?"

"We've been short staffed today and so Gabi offered to be in charge of the resuscitation area, we didn't really want her to be doing that much work after what happened on Thursday, but she said she was fine and reminded us we were short staffed before heading in that direction. Being in there means she's in charge of all the major cases that are brought in and today there happened to be quite a few, but because she was pretty much the only doctor in there, it meant she was pretty rushed off her feet. Long story short we had a lot of fatalities today Troy and Gabi is blaming herself, she's saying if she could have done this sooner or that sooner, then they wouldn't have died, but there truly wasn't any more she could've done Troy. She was rushed off of her feet in there Troy and yet every patient that passed through had her full attention, she couldn't have prevented any of those deaths today Troy. We work in the emergency department of a hospital, people die and she knows that, but today I think it's just gotten to her that bit too much, but I'm told you're off to a party, so I'm hoping she'll be able to have some fun and forget about today."

"Yeah, it's Amber and Lillie's birthday so we're having a get together at Mum and Dad's and Oli's been asking for her all day, so I'm sure he'll soon help her forget. I'll talk to her on the way home, but I'm sure you've already told her numerous times she did all she could and I'm sure she knows that, she just needs to let it all settle in, which I'm thinking is kinda hard while she's still here."

"Yeah, I'm sure as soon as she gets out of here, she'll be fine, she went into the locker rooms just before you came in so she shouldn't be long now." Troy and Kelly continued to talk for a few more minutes, before the locker room door opened and a very tired looking Gabriella came out and walked over to them.

"Hey beautiful, how you doing?" Troy asked his wife, as he wrapped her up in a much needed hug.

"I've been better," Gabriella answered, as she nuzzled her face against Troy's shirt.

"Yeah so I hear, but your shift's over now so forget about it and remember that tomorrow is a new day."

"I know it is Troy and I know it wasn't my fault those people died today, it's just hard sometimes."

"I know it is honey," Troy responded, as he placed a soft kiss on Gabriella's hair. "I just don't want you dwelling on things for the rest of the evening is all, we've got a party to go and enjoy, plus Oli has been asking for you all day and I'm thinking he'll still be awake, so you ready to go?" Gabriella nodded and pulled out of their embrace to hug Kelly goodbye, before the pair left the hospital and headed to Jack and Lucille's to join the party.

**TGTGTGTG**

"I love you big brother," Jasmine stated, as she took a seat next to Troy later that evening, who was sat on the couch, cradling a sleeping Tabatha in his arms.

"I love you too little sister, you and Jake were the first ones to make Gabi and I and Auntie and Uncle, we've never been them before," Troy replied, as he ran his fingers through his niece's chocolate coloured wisps of hair.

"Well I'm glad we could give you that title" Jasmine replied, as she let a now half awake Tabatha grasp onto one of her fingers. "Anyway, I wanted to thank you and Gabi."

"Did I hear my name?" Gabriella asked, as she walked into the lounge, followed by Jake, who took his daughter from Troy and went to put her down in the basinet that was constantly kept in Jack and Lucille's dining room when a new born was around.

"Yep, Jazzy wanted to thank us for something," Troy told Gabriella, as she took a seat next to him and cuddled into his side.

"Yeah I just wanted to thank you both for what you suggested to Jake the other day about him bringing Tabby to me in the night when she wants feeding, rather than me going to get her, I can already feel the differences and it's only been a couple of nights."

"Well we're glad we could help Jaz. I remember when I had Chloe and all I wanted to do was look after her and not let Troy near her, but once he started bringing her to me at night, I realised that it was okay for him to help, he is her Dad after all. It's like Lucille told me, she is half of him, so he should loose some sleep because of her as well."

Jasmine laughed. "Well thank you anyway guys, you've really helped us out, haven't they babe?" She asked, Jake who walked in with a baby monitor in his hand.

"Erm yes." Jake answered, unsure of what he was agreeing to.

"Right answer," Jazzy told him in an excited voice, as he took a seat next to her and allowed her to cuddle into his side.

"I can't believe you wanted to give them a bath and put them to sleep on your birthday, why would you do that?" Sam was heard asking from the hallway.

"Because they were actually here for once," Lillie answered.

"Yeah we only see them on Sunday's now because someone works crazy shifts and won't bring them over any other time," Amber said in Gabriella's direction, as the three siblings appeared in the lounge.

"There's nothing stopping you coming over to our house and even when I am at work, there's nothing stopping your brother bringing them over is there?" Gabriella shot back, causing all the attention to go to Troy just as Jack, John and Pete walked in.

"Dad tell Troy he doesn't bring the littlies round her enough," Lillie said, as Jack squeezed into a spot on the now rather crowded couch.

"Troy brings them over just the right amount, thank you very much, I don't need the twins and you and them all running round here at once."

"Don't forget about adding yourself to that list," Lucille said, as she appeared in the living room doorway.

"You wanna sit down Mum?" Troy asked, beginning to get up so that Lucille could sit down.

"No I'm fine thanks honey, I actually wanted to talk to you and Gabi for a minute, if that's alright?" Troy nodded and pulled Gabriella up with him, as they followed Lucille through to the kitchen, ignoring Jack's protests at Lucille and Lillie's protest at Jack.

"What's up Mum?" Troy asked, as they all sat down on the stools around the kitchen island.

"You've probably noticed that Sophie only came down here when we sang happy birthday to the girls, other than that she's been upstairs in her room and I'm seriously worried about her. She never shuts herself away in her room, even when she's ill or upset she leaves the door open until someone goes in or she'll lie under a blanket on the couch. Both your Dad and I have tried talking to her, so have many of the others and the only one who seemed to get any where was Jasmine, Sophie told her that she was scared and that just because those girls were gone, it didn't mean that she was going to go back to school, she said they'd still get to her. But she loves school guys, she loves learning and the activities she does, she wouldn't want to stop going just because of the rumours and remarks that would be going round, she's better than that, she'd ignore them. I'm really worried about her Troy, I know she's in pain and still needs to recover, but I'm worried that she's bottling things up and she won't talk to anyone and I don't know what else to do."

"Mum its okay, we'll go and talk to her, please don't get upset, she's going to be alright," Troy said, as he got up and gave Lucille a reassuring hug.

"Are you sure? I mean that's not why I talked to you…well I guess it is, but I didn't know what else to do and you were with her yesterday Gabi and she spoke to you a bit then, so I thought she might do the same now."

"Mum its fine," Gabriella immediately told her. "We'll go and talk to her, see if she'll open up to us, but while we're doing that you go through and sit with the others and relax for a bit, you've been on the go non stop today getting ready for tonight, just go and cuddle up with Dad with a bit, everyone else is cuddled up, well apart from Sam, but there's no reason why you shouldn't be," Lucille wiped a hand down her face, getting rid of any lingering tears and gave Gabriella and Troy a quick hug before heading through to the lounge.

**TGTGTGTG**

When Troy and Gabriella had moved into their own apartment and had been settled in for a few months their room had been given to Sophie and had been completely re-decorated. It was now a pale purple in colour and a large majority of the furniture was white instead of brown making the room very bright and welcoming in appearance. Sophie had the room decorated with photos of her family and friends, but the most obvious thing was her collection to gymnastic and athletic awards, that took pride of place on some shelves which Jack had built her, especially for that purpose.

Walking into their old bedroom, Troy and Gabriella expected to find Sophie curled up in bed, but instead found the bed empty, the balcony doors open and soft whimpers and cried coming from that direction.

"Sophie sweetheart, what are you doing out here?" Gabriella asked, as she carefully approached the young girl and took a seat next to her, leaving Troy to watch from inside, after being unsure on how Sophie would act to her big brother being there.

"I couldn't breathe in there anymore, Mum and Dad kept on coming in to check on me and I've got so much running through my head, I just wanted to come out here and think, but it was pretty painful walking out here and now that I'm thinking, I'm kinda not liking it," Sophie admitted, as she wiped away some of her tears on her pyjama sleeve.

"Your Mum and Dad are only worried about you honey, they're your parents, it's their job to worry," Sophie let out a soft laugh at this. "But Troy and I aren't and we were wondering if you'd come back inside and talk to us, you don't have to, but we're younger than your Mum and Dad, we might understand more where you're coming from and may even be able to help."

"Do you think Troy will carry me to the bathroom? I need to pee."

"Don't worry, he doesn't have a choice, I'm _telling_ him he's carrying you there, Troy!" Sophie laughed as Troy appeared out on the balcony and did as he was told by his wife, realising that Troy and Gabriella were the people she wanted to open up to.

"Okay little sister," Troy said a little over five minutes later, when they were all settled on Sophie's bed. "Get talking."

Sophie took a deep breath and squeezed her cuddly toy elephant; she'd be given when she was little, to her chest. "The two girls that did this to me, they're the leaders of a group of girls who go around together, the bitches in my year is the easiest way to put it. They all think they're better than everyone else because they're cheerleaders and think that's how it's going to be when we go to East High, the point is because they're cheerleaders they're always in my gym class and are usually about when I'm practising my gymnastics. Anyway, this year I joined the athletics team as well because Dad told me I should and I really wanted to do it, they weren't to happy about this. They said that I wasn't allowed to be good at gymnastics and running and also be able to keep my grades up as well, they said it wasn't fair and that they'd get me for it, to begin with I just ignored them and got on with things, I didn't really care what they thought. But as things moved on I realised they were serious about their threat because they all started making stupid little comments, whether it was my gymnastics, my running or even my class work, they always found something to comment on, even if it was just what I was wearing compared to what I was doing. I never commented back, I mean what was the point, it'd only make things worse, I never thought they'd do anything like this to me though, I mean they knew the comments were getting to me, they caught me crying about it a couple of times, I figured that'd be enough to satisfy them, apparently not," Sophie finished and reached for a tissue out of the box that Gabriella had in her lap, wanting to wipe away her silent tears, having had enough of crying.

"You should've told someone Soph, they could've put a stop to things before they got as bad as they did," Troy said, as he gently pulled her to him for a much needed hug.

"We can't change what they did to you honey, it's happened and there's nothing more that can be done about it, but I want you to promise me three things, you think you can do that?" Sophie nodded at Gabriella and reached across to snatch another tissue from the box. "Okay, when you're all healed and have been given the okay to go back to school I want you to promise us you'll go and that if any of those other girls start, that you tell someone as soon as you can," Sophie nodded and cuddled herself closer to Troy. "Alright, second thing is that I want you to carry on doing what you do, your gymnastics, your running and keeping up with those amazing grades because they're _all _your thing and you _don't_ have to pick just one of them, you hearing me?" Sophie nodded again, as she swiped at Troy for playing with her elephant's ears. "Finally I want you to come downstairs with us and give Mum and Dad a hug for a bit, think you can manage that?" Sophie nodded and allowed Troy to carry her downstairs and plonk her down in Jack's lap, where she soon situated herself in between her parents for a much needed hug, while everyone else made their excuses and left to go home and Sam disappeared off to his room.

**TGTGTGTG**

"What's this?" Lillie asked the following evening, as she and Pete sat cuddled up on the couch at his apartment.

"An envelope," Pete answered, as he put it in her lap because she wouldn't take it from him.

"Yeah I know that dearest, but what's in it?"

"It's a late birthday present, please just open it," Lillie sighed but still did as she was told and in the envelope found a silver door key.

"What's this? And please don't say a key, what is the key for?" She asked holding it up in front of them.

Pete took a deep breath and moved so that he was looking Lillie in the eye. "It's a key to my front door, Lillie, will you move in with me?"

"You…you want me to live with you? Are you sure?"

"More sure than I've ever been over anything else, is that a yes?"

"Yes of course it's a yes, I'd love to move in with you," Lillie answered excitedly, as she carefully placed the key on the coffee table, before flinging her arms around Pete and kissing him senseless, meaning things soon moved on to a night of crazy, amazing passion.

**TGTGTGTG**

In another apartment, in an apartment block not so far away from her twin, Amber was also, unknowingly, about to take the next step in her relationship.

"That was lovely babe, thank you," Amber said, as she flopped down on the couch after eating the meal she'd come home from work to find John had prepared for her.

"You deserved it babe, I told you, tonight is a continuation from yesterday because I still haven't given you your proper present yet," John called through from their kitchen, as he quickly rinsed the dishes and placed them in the dishwasher.

"What do you mean? You gave me this lovely necklace yesterday; you couldn't possibly have gotten me anything else."

"Well I did, so please hear me out on this," John replied, as he came and took a seat on the edge of the couch next to his girlfriend. "Amber, I remember the first time I set eyes on you, you brought your car into Jake's garage because it had stopped working for some reason and from that day on you've had me. You've told me so many times how you used to get picked on about your eyes being green and not the normal Bolton blue, but for me that's what drew me to you, they're what I love about you and if anyone ever says anything about them ever again they'll have me to deal with. Look, Amber I love you with all my heart and because of that it's yours, I can never get it back and that's the way I want it to stay for the rest of our lives." Amber's hands flew to her mouth, as John got down on one knee and pulled a ring box out of his pocket, opening it to reveal the most amazing engagement ring. "Amber Bolton, will you please do me the honour of becoming my wife? Will you please marry me?"

"Yes, yes of course I'll marry you," Was all Amber managed to get out, as she allowed John to slip the ring onto her finger, before she leapt into his arms and started a night of crazy, amazing passion.

**TGTGTGTG**

**There's another one for you guys, hope you liked it! **

**Again it's not very long, but I'm thinking the drama will begin pretty soon, so the chapters will get longer again, for now you'll just have to deal with it, it's an update after all.**

**PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW! THANK YOU!**


	5. Mr and Mrs

**Here's the next chapter for you guys, I know I promised drama, but tough, it's time for a wedding first, enjoy!**

Mr and Mrs

"Matty you little trouble maker, get back here," Troy called after his son, as he chased him through his parents' house.

"Mummy!"

"How is that you know she's here before she's even walked in the door?"

"It's 'cause you're amazing, isn't it buddy?" Gabriella asked her eldest son, as she cuddled him close and allowed him to bury his face in her chest.

"No tie," Matty mumbled, as he ran his fingers through Gabriella's hair.

"Oh so that's the reason you came to meet me, well in that case I don't want you anymore," Gabriella said, as she put Mathew down on the floor and gave Troy a kiss in greeting before heading through to the lounge.

Walking into the lounge, Gabriella found Jessie, the blushing bride, sat on the couch in her dressing gown with her hair and make up already done, happily playing with little Oliver, who was as smartly dressed as a nearly one year could be.

"Mummy you're here," Chloe happily exclaimed, as she sat and waited patiently for Lillie to finish her hair, as today she would be Jessie and Craig's flower girl, while Matty would be their ring bearer.

"Of course I'm here sweetie, are you sitting still for Auntie Lillie?"

"Yep I am, tell her Auntie Lillie."

"She's been amazing Gabs, how are you doing?"

"I'm tired and sore, but other than that I think I'm okay, how you holding up Jess? You ready for it?"

"I've never been more ready for anything else in my life," Jessica answered straightaway, as she helped Oli to put the triangle through the triangle shaped hole, something which Oliver was especially proud of and clapped his hands happily to prove it.

"Nice job buddy," Troy complemented his son. "Now before you guys whisk her away to help with dresses and such, can I please borrow my wife?"

"You don't have to ask Troy, she is your wife," Jessie answered, as Troy took Gabriella's hand and led her from the room, but not before sticking his tongue out at his sister. He led Gabriella through to what used to be the 'quiet room' and plopped down onto the couch, pulling her with him so he could cuddle her into his side.

Gabriella had left their home last night at half past five to start work at six and work through the night until six o'clock this morning, at which point she went home and climbed into bed with Troy and fell asleep until half past twelve today, at which point Troy and the children had already left to come to Jack and Lucille's.

"How you felling beautiful?" Troy asked, as he let Gabriella rest her head against his chest and he began to run his fingers through her hair.

"Shattered," Gabriella answered honestly and as if to prove her point yawned, _really_ loudly. "I just worked a busy twelve hour night shift, got seven hours sleep afterwards and today is going to be a long one, I think I'm going to take a nap with Oli and Matty this afternoon."

"You should babe, people would understand, how's your back?" Troy knew that although Gabriella's bruise had cleared up considerably since the incident, it still caused her some pain and that on top of her being tired, wasn't a good thing.

"Sore and achy, but I took some painkillers after my shower, so I'm good for now," Gabriella answered, as she moved to lay down and put her head in Troy's lap, happily taking the risk of falling asleep.

"Good I'm glad, you wanna go to sleep now? Cause you can if you want, we'd manage without you."

"I want to, but if I do I'll be really cranky when you wake me up, so please don't let me sleep Troy, I know you want to and any other day I'd tell you to let me, but I need to be awake for as long as I can today, this is a big day for Jessie and Craig."

"I know it is babe, I just don't like seeing you this tired, although I know you've functioned on less, even though I still have no idea how you do it and look this amazing, you look really beautiful Brie." Gabriella smiled and sat up to give Troy a sweet kiss on the cheek before settling herself sideways on his lap and resting herself against his chest.

"You do though lovely, I mean you always look amazing, but that dress makes you look even more so." Gabriella was wearing a floor length floral dress, which was strapless and really complimented her figure, as did her natural skin coloured make up and her usual curly hair.

"You don't scrub up too bad yourself hubby," Gabriella complimented, as she pushed herself off of Troy's lap and then turned round to pull him up as well. "So here's the deal dearest, I'm going to go and help the girl's with dresses and such, while you, get the incredibly enjoyable job of trying to put Matty's tie on."

Troy groaned. "Brie I was trying to do that for half an hour before you got here, he won't let me near him."

"Sweet talk him, bribe him, I don't care how you do it, you'll find a way, but that tie needs to go on Troy, he doesn't have to sit still once it's on, he can still play, he just needs to stand still long enough for you to be able to put it on, think you can do that?"

"I'll try, but only because you're so tired and are actually still awake and because I love you." Troy leaned down and gave Gabriella a quick peck on the lips, before the pair parted ways to do their part in this big day.

**TGTGTGTG**

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please be upstanding for Mr and Mrs Craig Hilton." The room erupted into cheers as Craig led his wife into the room that contained their family and friends.

Many of the women, including Jessie, had all cried throughout the ceremony, but now they had all dried their tears and had radiant smiles on their faces, all except Jessie. She couldn't believe this day had actually come and Craig had spent the last hour they had together trying to convince her otherwise, while stealing some passionate kisses, but she still couldn't stop. Craig had told her she needed to start believing it because she was married, she was now his wife and he was now her husband and it was going to be that way forever more, so she better start getting used to it.

She'd done as he'd asked, taken a deep breath, dried her tears and enjoyed their first bit of time together as man and wife, but as Craig's brother, Danny, had announced them to the crowd as man and wife the tears came back and she was once again thankful to Lillie for the water proof make up. Craig had led her to the head table and sat her down while crouching down in front of her to calm her down, but he soon felt a small hand on his shoulder and turned to the side to see Chloe quietly standing there.

"Hey Chloe, you okay?" The young girl nodded and handed Craig a tissue.

"Auntie Jessie can't be sad, it's her wedding," Chloe stated confidently, as she moved closer to Craig once he'd wrapped his arm around her.

"You're right there sweetie, why don't you give Auntie Jessie her tissue and try and cheer her up for me?" Chloe nodded happily and moved so that she was in between Craig's leg, before taking her tissue from Craig and turning to face her still crying Auntie.

"Please don't be sad Auntie Jessie," Chloe said, as she placed the tissue into Jessie's hands, which were wringing nervously in her lap.

"I'm not sad honey, these are happy tears," Jessie replied, as she used the tissue to dry her tears and wipe her nose.

"You don't look very happy, does she Uncle Craig? You are my Uncle now, right?" Chloe asked Craig, turning round to look at him questioningly.

"Yeah sweetie, I'm your Uncle now and you're right Auntie Jessie doesn't look very happy, but you're supposed to be cheering her up, remember?" Chloe's face lit up in remembrance and she moved from in between Craig's legs to in front of the chair next to Jessie's. She then pulled herself up onto the chair and moved so that she was facing Jessie, effectively kneeling sideways on the chair. She wrapped her arms round her Auntie and held her tight, while quietly telling her not to cry, like Gabriella did to her when she was upset. It wasn't long before Jessie was returning the hug and pulled her niece onto her lap.

"Why don't we go and ask the DJ to start the music and then you can show me how good you are at dancing?" Jessie proposed, as she allowed Chloe to wipe away the last of her tears. Chloe nodded happily at this idea and had soon slid off of Jessie's lap and was waiting for her to finish talking to Craig.

"Thank you," Jessie thanked Craig with a kiss, as their arms wrapped around each other.

"Don't thank me, thank Chloe," Craig responded, as he gave is wife one more kiss before letting her head off with Chloe, with one last lingering thought. _You can thank me later._

**TGTGTGTG**

The bride and groom had gone up to their honeymoon suite for the night; many of the guests had left, leaving only close family and friends of the bride and groom and Troy had lost his wife.

"Mum?" He called as he made his way across the room to where Lucille was sat speaking to Jazzy as she fed Tabatha.

"Yes?" Lucille responded, as she turned round to see Troy approaching her.

"Have you seen Gabi? I can't find her."

"She's outside where you left her Troy," Lucille informed her son, as he sat down next to her.

"No she's not I just looked out there, all I can see is Dad playing with the littlies."

"She's sat where you left her, but she's really curled up in the chair, I think she's probably even asleep, I saw your Dad talking to her and then he took his suit jacket off and covered her up with it, I wouldn't be at all surprised if she is asleep, she hasn't been herself all day Troy."

"I know Mum, she worked a busy twelve hour sleep last night and then only got seven hours sleep when she got home, I told her she could sleep when she arrived at yours, but she wouldn't, she didn't want to be grouchy when she woke up and ruin Craig and Jessie's day."

"I know sweetie, but Craig and Jessie aren't here anymore, so take her home will you? Your Dad and I can take the littlies for the night, we have some of their belongings at ours so you don't need to worry about that, just come and pick them up sometime tomorrow, okay?" Troy nodded as he stood up.

"That sounds amazing, thanks Mum; she hasn't been sleeping very well since she injured her back."

"I know she hasn't sweetie, but her sleeping in a sun chair isn't really going to help her is it? Now go, we'll see you tomorrow," Troy smiled and gave his Mum a quick kiss and hug before heading outside.

He found Gabriella curled up on her sun chair and she was indeed asleep under Jack's jacket as Lucille had said she would be. Not wanting to wake her for littlie while longer, Troy went over to speak to Jack, who was now talking to Pete while Lillie played with the children.

"She needs to be in a proper bed Troy," Jack warned his son, as he stopped next to him.

"I know Dad, Mum sent me out here to take her home, she said you two will take these lot for the night and then will pick them up sometime tomorrow, that okay with you?"

"Yeah of course it is, you can keep my jacket over her by the way, just bring it with you tomorrow."

"Thanks Dad, I'm not gonna say goodbye to these, it'll just upset them and then wake up Brie and upset her, is that alright with you? You'll have to deal with them when they do notice we're gone."

"It's fine son, I've dealt with it before and I'll do it again, now go!" Troy took his car keys out of his pocket and held his hands up in surrender.

"Did you want me to go ahead and open your car for you? You won't be able to do that if you're carrying Gabi, which I'm guessing you will be."

"Yeah I will be, that'd be a great help, thanks Pete," Troy handed him the car keys and they both headed over towards Gabriella. Carefully Troy scooped his wife into his arms and Pete helped him to make sure that Jack's coat was still covering her, before he picked up Gabriella's clutch to carry to the car.

Pete walked ahead and unlocked the car, opening the passenger side door and putting Gabriella's clutch on the floor, before holding the door open so that Troy could gently put her in and put on her seatbelt without too much movement and fuss.

"Thanks Pete, that was a great help," Troy said, as the two men shook hands and said goodbye before Pete head inside and Troy got onto the car, only to find Gabriella slightly awake.

"Troy? What's going on?" Her voice was hoarse and she looked really groggy.

"It's okay lovely, we're going home now so you can sleep in a bed, just go back to sleep, you're okay."

"What about the children?"

"Mum and Dad have their set of car seats and are gonna take them, it's fine, just sleep Brie." Gabriella easily complied with that and was soon asleep again, leaving Troy to drive home with the radio for company.

**TGTGTGTG**

"Three down, four to go," Harold said to Helena, as she got into bed next to him that night.

"What are you talking about dear?"

"Three of our grandchildren are married now, so there's four left, that's what I'm talking about."

Helena laughed. "Yeah I guess you're right, although one of them is engaged now, so soon it'll be four down three to go." This time Harold laughed, as Helena turned of the light and they settled down in bed.

"Harold, can you promise me something?" Helena asked through the darkness.

"Anything my dear." 

"When I go, don't be sad and don't let the others be sad either. It'll be the right time for me to go and I want you all to remember the happy times, not the sad ones."

"Helena what are you talking about? You're not ill are you?"

"No lovey, I'm fine." Little did Harold know, that was one of the biggest lies Helena had ever told.

**TGTGTGTG**

**I know it's been a while and I'm sorry, but if you knew what I'd been going through I'm sure you'd all understand. **

**It's not very long, but that can't be helped, the end is there to set up for what's to come and to be completely honest, this chapter has been one of the hardest I've ever had to write. **

**So, enjoy it and as always:**

**PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW! THANK YOU!**


	6. Never Again

**Not that I don't appreciate the ones I did get, but reviews were a bit low last chapter guys, what happened? You know I love you if you did review though!**

**Anyway chapter six, enjoy!**

Never Again 

New Years Eve, a night that is always celebrated globally. The one day of every year, the last moment of every year when people come together, to celebrate, remember and forgive. The Bolton's were no different, having all come together at Jack and Lucille's to bring in the New Year.

As the clock struck twelve and the fireworks began, an all too close bang was heard from the hallway, the direction Helena had gone only moments before. Pete, being nearest to the doorway went to investigate and the sight that met him sent the next few moments into slow motion.

Helena was in a crumpled heap on the hallway floor and as Pete moved closer, Helena made no signs of moving.

By now Pete was not alone with Helena in the hallway and when Gabriella saw what was going on, her doctoring instincts kicked in.

"Move back guys." She told the others, as she stepped over Helena so that she was facing her front. "We need to give her some room." Pete, being a swimming teacher was trained in first aid and was already assessing Helena and his next words to Gabriella shocked her into action.

"Gabs, she's not breathing." The pair shared a quick look, before turning Helena onto her back with Gabriella beginning CPR, while Pete phoned for an ambulance and moved the rest of the family back into the lounge.

Although Gabriella had been a part of the Bolton family since she was seventeen, she isn't blood related and so although what she was currently doing was ringing through her mind, she was able to put it aside that bit more easily, along with Jake, Craig and John, who, while Pete worked to help Gabriella to the best of his ability, did their best to keep the rest of the family calm.

The ambulance arrived in under ten minutes and the crew were quick to decide that shocking Helena's heart back into rhythm while her family were in the other room wasn't a good idea and so although one of them used a special face mask with a pump bag attached to help Gabriella with the 'breathing' part of the CPR, the resuscitation process was still all down to her. Helena was quickly transferred to a stretcher, with Gabriella still doing CPR and the paramedics were soon rushing them out to the ambulance, with Pete telling Gabriella to do her thing and that he'd organise getting everyone else to the hospital.

One of the paramedics briefly took over the CPR to give Gabriella a few minutes to recover, but soon they swapped back when they arrived at the hospital and the doors of the ambulance swung open to reveal Gabriella's colleagues.

"Gabi?" Kelly asked, being he first to see her in the back of the ambulance. "What's going on? Who's this?" The stretched was pulled out of the ambulance and Gabriella stood on one of the bars on the bottom, so that she was also being wheeled along while continuing CPR.

"This is Helena Bolton, she's eighty eight years old, as far as I know has no health problems and nearly twenty minutes ago she collapsed and stopped breathing. I've been doing CPR since then, but she needs shocking Kel, we haven't had the chance to do it, we just needed to get her here."

"Okay honey, just hang tight and keep doing what you're doing until we can shock her, she's Jack's Mum, right?" Gabriella nodded, as the trolley was brought to a stop in a bay and the curtains we drawn around it.

"Aimee," Gabriella called to one of the nurses, as the defibrillator was being changed and attached to Helena. "My family were gonna follow us, can you meet them when they get here and put them in the relatives room, there's a lot of them so you can't miss them."

"I'm on it Gabs, no problem."

"Okay charged to three sixty, all clear?" 

"Clear."

"Shocking," Kelly called, as she sent a hopefully life saving electrical current through Helena's body. Gabriella quickly continued CPR in the hope that the shocking had worked, but no such luck Kelly was soon shocking Helena again.

Ten minutes later the team were still shocking Helena, but all knew in their hearts that there was nothing more they could do and to their surprise their now crying colleague confirmed this.

"I think we need to call it," Gabriella whispered. "She's been out for over half an hour now. Time of death, zero fifty eight, thanks everyone." Gabriella stood stuck to the spot, as her colleagues filed out of the cubicle, leaving her staring into the pale face of the woman she'd become happy to call her Grandma.

"Gabi," Kelly broke her trance, as she wrapped an arm round her friend. "We need to tell the others, do you want me to do it?"

"No, I will, but will you come with me?" Kelly nodded and led Gabriella out of Helena's cubicle, as nurses came back in and began to tidy all the medical equipment away and make Helena look more presentable.

Kelly knocked on the relative's room door, before opening it and leading Gabriella in, she knew Gabriella didn't need to speak for her family to know what she was about to say.

"I'm sorry guys, she didn't make it."

**TGTGTGTG**

Gabriella was trained in dealing with family bereavement and so over the next half an hour, Kelly watched as spoke to each of the family members in tern, explaining to them in a way that they would understand, what had happened and what would happen next. Each member of the family went and saw Helena and said a few words to her, things that they'd been wanting to say, but hadn't gotten the chance to. As the clock struck two in the morning, the family decided they were no use to anyone here and that heading home and trying to get some sleep was the best idea.

Jazzy, Jessie, Amber and Lillie all went to their own homes with their respective other halves, something which Jack and Lucille were okay with because they knew that although Jake, Craig, John and Pete were affected by this, they weren't, understandably, as close to Helena as the girls were and would therefore be able to comfort their distraught daughters.

Troy had hardly spoken to anyone since arriving at the hospital and had barely acknowledged Gabriella when she tried to speak to him like she did the others. As his sisters started to leave, Troy with the help of Pete and John, picked up his sleeping children and told Gabriella he was taking them home and to bed, she told him she'd join him later, she needed to make sure everyone else was alright first.

Jack and Lucille were leaving too, but were going to take Harold with them, he was in no fit state to be by himself and they had plenty of room at theirs and for once, Harold wasn't arguing. They told Sophie and Sam they were leaving, but neither one acknowledged them, they were curled up together in the corner of the room and neither of them had been to see Helena. Gabriella had told them to go and that she would look after the twins, she'd somehow become the lead in this case and therefore had a few things that needed to be signed off.

Hospital staff aren't supposed to treat their own family members, but it had all happened so quickly that there was no way of changing what Gabriella was doing.

Gabriella leant against the wall outside the relative's room and closed her eyes; she was tired from doing the CPR, but knew her night was far from over.

"Gabi?" Opening her eyes, Gabriella found Kelly walking towards her. "They're letting me off in about twenty minutes so I can take you and the twin's home if you'd like. Helena has been moved down to the chapel for a bit because I thought that Sophie and Sam might want to go see her."

"Yeah, I think once I go in there and talk to them they will, they're only thirteen, this is a bit overwhelming for them. I'll talk to them and then take them down there, meet you out front in…forty five minutes?"

"Yeah alright, I'll see you then honey," Kelly gave Gabriella a quick hug, before heading off to sort out Helena's paper work, which Gabriella had signed off, just as everyone was leaving.

Gabriella ran a hand down her face which was still sticky from her crying, as she realised that their resuscitation attempts were futile. That was the only time she'd cried through this whole though, she wiped away her tears as Kelly lead her to the relative's room and even while she spoke to her family and watched them all cry, she still somehow managed to keep her tears at bay.

Taking a deep breath, Gabriella pushed off of the wall and opened the door leading into the relative's room, where the youngest Bolton twins were still cuddled up together in the corner.

Silently, she walked over to them and stood in the middle of them until Sam got the message and moved over, allowing her to sit down in the middle of them and wrap an arm around them both.

"Talk to me guys, tell me what you're thinking, I don't care how silly it sounds, just tell me."

"I'm thinking that she won't get to see us go to high school," Sophie answered quietly.

"I'm thinking that she won't get to see Chloe, Matty, Oli, Tabby or any other littlies that come along, grow up," Sam answered, just as quietly.

"I'm thinking that it would really help you guys if you went and saw Grandma to say goodbye. I know you didn't want to go earlier because that was where everything happened and there's a lot of medical equipment in there, but she's been moved to the chapel for a bit now, so you guys can say goodbye and see that she's at peace, she really just looks like she's asleep. I'll come with you both, if that helps at all."

"I'll go," Sam replied. "I don't know about saying goodbye, I think that'd be too weird for me, but I think seeing her will help me with everything."

"Me too," Sophie added. "But I'm not doing unless we all go together at the same time, we can do that right Gabs?"

"Yeah honey, we can," Gabriella answered, as she held the twins close, thankful that they had each other now, more than ever.

**TGTGTGTG**

It was four o'clock, by the time Gabriella arrived home. She'd helped Sam and Sophie understand what would happen with Helena next and spoke to them about talking to people and not keeping their feelings inside, as she often did at their age. The teenagers had each taken some time to talk to Helena, just to talk to her and say things they would never again get the chance to say. They'd then met Kelly outside and she'd silently driven them home, not knowing what else to say, when Gabriella had already said it all. She'd waited outside as Gabriella took the twins inside and got them settled, while also promising Jack and Lucille she'd be in contact tomorrow. Kelly had dropped Gabriella off with the promise that she was there for her no matter what. Gabriella had thanked and hugged Kelly before getting out of the car and slowly making her way towards the house, ready to climb into bed and get some kind of rest before getting on with the rest of the day.

Walking into the house Gabriella could see that the living room light was still on and so instead of heading upstairs like she'd wanted to, she went through to turn it off, suspecting Troy just hadn't realised it was on.

But Gabriella had soon found why the light was still on; Troy was still up. The French doors leading to the back porch were open and Gabriella could just about make out Troy's figure sat on the porch steps leading down into the garden.

"Troy?" Gabriella didn't want to startle Troy; he clearly wasn't in a great state of mind, considering he was sat out there in a t-shirt and his boxers, apparently having already been to bed.

"She's gone Gabs, we're never gonna see her again and the littlies probably won't even remember who she is," It was clear to Gabriella by Troy's voice, that he was crying and had been for some time, making her feel guilty for letting him come home alone with the children.

Silently she sat down on the step next to him and wrapped her arms around him, encouraging him to eventually lay his head onto her shoulder, just like he'd done to her on the night Lucille had brought her home. "I know this is hard Troy and I'm not sure what I can say to you other than what I did back at the hospital. As for the littlies forgetting her, that's not going to happen because we're not going to let it. We've got pictures and home videos and memories and between the lot us, we won't let them forget. Just like we won't let Tabby forget or any more little ones that come along because we'll teach them about what an amazing woman their Great Grandma was and how she will always be watching over them." Troy didn't respond to what Gabriella had said, he knew she was right, she pretty much always was, but right now he just wanted to be in her arms and so cuddled himself closer to her and was happy when he felt her tighten her grip around him.

"Mummy?" Both Troy and Gabriella turned their heads to find Chloe stood in her nightie in the doorway, tears collecting in her eyes.

"What's wrong sweetie? What are you doing up?" Gabriella moved back on the porch so that she could kneel in front of Chloe, while Troy did his best to hide his tears from his daughter.

"I want Grandma Helena back," Chloe's collecting tears pooled over, as Gabriella pulled her into her arms and did her best to comfort her.

"Here's the deal Chloe," Gabriella began, as she moved to sit down and pull Chloe into her lap and found Troy had moved next to them. "You can come and sleep with Mummy and Daddy tonight but I need you to stop crying for me, I know you're sad, we all are, but Grandma Helena wouldn't want you to cry would she?" Chloe shook her head and let Gabriella wipe away her tears, before she reached over and wiped away Troy's remaining ones.

"Mummy says no more crying Daddy, okay?"

"Yeah," Troy nodded and did his best to not start up again. "No more crying baby girl."

"Why don't you go and find your blanket and then go and wait in our room and we'll be there in a minute cutie?" Chloe nodded and kissed both Troy and Gabriella on the cheek before getting up and heading back inside.

When she was sure Chloe was well on her way upstairs Gabriella also stood up and after brushing herself off held her hands out to Troy. He took them and she pulled him up and into a hug, pulling him tightly against her whispering sweet nothings into his ear, as a few more tears slipped out at Chloe's sweet words.

"Let's go to bed honey, I know you've already tried, but I haven't and I'm really tired, but I need you to be there with me and Chloe, alright?" Troy nodded silently and allowed Gabriella to lead him inside where she sat him on the couch while she locked the French doors and then quickly made sure everything else was secure, before coming back and taking his left hand in hers, wrapped her right arm round his waist and led him upstairs to bed, where Chloe had already fallen back to sleep in her own bed.

**TGTGTGTG**

She'd known this was going to happen, she'd known on the night on Jessie and Craig's wedding. She'd told him not to bed sad and to make sure they others weren't either.

And now she was actually gone, Harold was going to have to put those things to practise because his wife had told him she wasn't ill, surely she wouldn't of lied to him, would she?

Harold wasn't sure what to think, as sleep finally began to pull him into it's grasp, he wouldn't be able to get many of the answer's to his questions anyway.

Because the only person who could answer them was his wife and she was gone, never coming back, she'd left him all alone for the first time in over sixty years and Harold wasn't sure if he'd be able to cope.

Never again would he be able to say: 'Helena I love you.'

Never again would he see her make their Great Grandchildren laugh.

Never again would he see the love of his life.

**TGTGTGTG**

**There it is people, I hope you enjoyed it.**

**PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW! THANK YOU!**


	7. Getting Help

**It feels like I'm losing readers guys and I KNOW that I'm losing reviewers, so where is everyone?**

**Here's the next one for you all, enjoy!**

Getting Help

"Kelly are you sure about this? I mean I can always stay here and look after them, you don't have to do this."

"Gabi seriously, chill out, Oscar and I have millions of nieces and nephews remember? We know how to look after children and there's only four of them, it'll be a doddle."

Today is the day of Helena's funeral and Kelly and her husband, Oscar have offered to look after Chloe, Matty, Oli and Tabatha while their parents attend the funeral. Kelly had approached Troy with her offer, knowing that if she asked Gabriella she'd just be turned down and be told that Gabriella was doing it herself. Troy, on the other hand, had immediately said yes, knowing that Gabriella _needed_ to go to the funeral for her own sake and that Jazzy and Jake needed someone to look after Tabatha for them, and so here we are.

"I don't know what you're so anxious about Gabs, I'm leaving my daughter with someone other than a family member for the first time and I'm not freaking out, so neither should you be. I know it's not the best circumstances we're leaving them under, but we need today, we need the closure so that we can move on and grieve. Let Kelly and Oscar look after them and then when you come back they'll have their little smiling faces on and will be able to cheer you up, alright?" Gabriella nodded knowing that Jasmine was right and after another quick goodbye to their children, the two Mums headed outside to join Jake and Troy in their cars.

It's a little over a week since Helena died and since then a post mortem had been performed and found the cause of Helena's death to be a stroke. A series of tests concluded that in the recent months Helena had suffered a few silent strokes, which have the same affects as normal strokes but have no physical signs, meaning they usually go undetected. It seems the stroke that caused Helena's death wasn't so silent and her body was no longer able to cope or put up a fight.

The family have all been coping with Helena's death differently, Jazzy wanting to stay at home with her family and no one was going to stop that, while Jessie and Craig have spent their time at Jack and Lucille's keeping an eye on Sam and Sophie while their parents made funeral arrangements. Amber and Lillie wanted to be together and had taken some time off from work and so while John and Pete worked, the girls did their best to stay strong and remember the good times. Jack and Lucille spent time together remembering Helena while also making funeral arrangements and keeping an eye their youngest who, when they weren't at school spent a lot of time hiding in their rooms. Harold made sure that his family stayed strong and remembered the good times like his wife had wanted, while also helping to give her the best send off he could, knowing that if he didn't, she'd get him for it later. Troy had spent most of his time looking after his children, knowing that they'd never fail to make him happy and that that was exactly what his Grandma had wanted. Gabriella had seemed to be taking things well, she'd had to work a couple of shifts and had even helped with a few funeral arrangements, but her attitude over going to the funeral indicated to Troy that her emotions were bubbling around inside her and that one day soon, they'd come crashing out, it was just a waiting game.

**TGTGTGTG**

The service had been the exact way Helena would have wanted it, her life was celebrated with people remembering the good times and Harold knew that she was smiling down on them through out the whole thing.

Close family and friends were now gathered at Jack and Lucille's were Kelly and Oscar had arrived with the littlies not long after everyone else and although they had protested had ended up staying because Harold some how knew that's what his wife wanted.

Troy headed out onto the back porch of the house needing to get some air, but also wanting to check on his youngest sister who he'd seen come outside not long before him. Turning round the corner of the house, Troy found Sophie sitting on the top porch step, her left wrist resting on her legs facing upwards, while her other hand seemed to be running over it. Stepping closer, Troy decided it was time to make his presence known.

"Hey Soph," Troy greeted his sister and watched as she seemed to quickly place something on the step beside her, the side of her that Troy couldn't see or easily get to.

"Oh hey Troy, I needed to get some air, it was getting a bit too much in there."

"Yeah same here," Troy responded. "Mind if I sit?" He asked, scuffing his shoe along the deck next to where Sophie was sat.

"Go ahead," Sophie said and Troy sat down while watching his sister start to rub at her wrist.

"Hurt it?" Troy asked, sensing that something wasn't quite right with his sister.

"Huh?" 

"Your wrist, you're rubbing it a lot, I just wondered it you'd hurt it or something?"

"Oh, I um…scratched it in the garden yesterday," Sophie answered hesitantly, while holding her wrist out in front of Troy, as if to prove she was telling the truth.

Gently taking her arm into his hands, Troy found the scratches that Sophie had said about, although they weren't exactly the type of scratches you'd expect to get in the garden. There were four of them, going across her arm, all about an inch or so long and they were red and looked sore, as if they were done recently, not yesterday like Sophie had said. These scratches looked like they were there on purpose, like Sophie had done them to herself.

"Soph you didn't get these in the garden, they're to thought about and they're far to red and sore to have been done yesterday." Sophie sighed and pulled her wrist back from Troy, she _knew_ he'd figured it out and she knew there was no point in trying to hide it.

"Why'd you do it kiddo? Why didn't you talk to someone? Someone here, at school, heck you know you're always welcome at mine, I've been there almost constantly the past week, you could of come and spoken to me," Sophie didn't answer Troy, she couldn't, tears were pouring from her eyes and she wasn't going to stop them. She hadn't cried properly over Helena's death yet and now that the tears were there she wasn't about to stop them, she _needed_ them.

"Oh Sophie, you silly thing, come here," Troy wasted no time in pulling his sister into his arms and letting her cry against his chest, he _knew_ she _needed_ this cry, like he had the night Helena had died, but he also knew this was the start of a new battle for Sophie.

"Sweetheart we need to talk to Mum and Dad and you need to get some help and talk to someone about why you hurt yourself. But listen to me, you don't have to do any of this alone, someone will be with you all the day, but you need to promise me one thing Soph."

"Anything," Sophie responded, as she sat up and wiped the tears from her face, although that didn't stop fresh ones from falling.

"Promise me you won't harm yourself again, give me what you've been harming yourself with and I'll take it home with me so it can't even tempt you and don't try and use something else. What have you been using sweetheart?" Sophie reached behind her and placed a hair grip into Troy's hand. It wasn't sharp by any means, but one of the ends was rough and using enough pressure, multiple times would've created the scratches on Sophie's wrist.

"It's the only one Troy, I swear and I've never drawn blood, I think it'd hurt too much to do that. There's scratches on my left thigh and elbow though, but that's it. I didn't want to do it Troy, I'm not proud of it, but I didn't know what else to do, I know you said I could've talked to anyone around me, but when I'm laying in bed at night cause I can't sleep, talking is the last thing on my mind and then the other day I saw this laying there and I just picked it up and started scratching myself, I don't know why, I just know that for a little while it was something else to think about."

"How long have you been doing it?" Troy asked, as he placed the hair grip in his pocket.

"Two and a half days," Sophie laughed. "It sounds so pathetic, but that's all it was I promise, I just wanna stop now Troy, I don't wanna be this way anymore, Grandma wouldn't want this."

"You're right sweetness, she wouldn't, so how about we go inside, you wait in the kitchen and clean yourself up and I'll go and find Mum and Dad, bring them through to the kitchen and we'll tell them together, they'll understand sweetheart, you just need to talk to them and let us get you some help, alright?"

Sophie nodded. "There's some counsellors at school, they've been keeping an eye on Sam and I since we went back cause Mum phoned the school and told them about Gran, they told us that if we need anything to go to them, I think it's time I took them up on that."

"I think that that is a very wise idea, ready to head inside?" Sophie nodded and allowed Troy to get up, before he then pulled her up and they headed inside with arms wrapped round each other. They stayed that way as they spoke to Jack and Lucille and only broke apart when Lucille took her little girl into her arms, with the promise that never again would Sophie feel she was alone in the world.

**TGTGTGTG**

A week later, the phone rang an hour after Gabriella was due to have arrived at work and Troy was quick to answer it, on the car ride back from taking Chloe to nursery the boys had both fallen back to sleep and Troy wasn't planning on waking them anytime soon.

"Hello?" He answered, as he walked back through to the utility room and finished loading the washing machine before putting it on.

"Hey Troy, it's Kelly."

"Oh hey Kelly, how are you?"

"I'm good thanks, yourself?"

"Yeah not too bad, is Gabs okay? This call isn't just so we can chat is it?"

Kelly laughed. "No Troy, it isn't, Gabi is on her way home. She came into work this morning on the verge of tears and when I asked her if she was okay, she just burst out crying and ran off towards the changing rooms. When I got in there she was curled up on the floor, trying her best to stop crying. She wouldn't speak to me Troy, but I did convince her to go home, I offered to phone her a taxi, but she said she wanted to drive and so she left. She should be with you any minute now and I just wanted to warn you."

"Oh okay, thanks Kelly. I didn't really speak to her this morning, she got up before I did, but she was pretty quiet I guess, she'll usually talk to me while I'm still in bed and hope that I'm listening, to be honest I've been expecting this."

"You have?"

"Yeah, the one and only time Gabi cried over Grandma's death was when she called it on your resuscitation attempts, she hasn't cried since, not to me, not at the funeral, she just hasn't, but she needs to Kelly. She needs to let her emotions out, Grandma played a big part in Gabi becoming herself again when we were teenagers and they became really close, I know this has hit her harder than she's letting on."

"I think I'd have to agree with you there Troy, but I really need to get back to work, I'm sorry, I just wanted to warn you and Troy?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't let her come back to work until she's ready," and with that the line went dead and Troy was left waiting for his wife to return home early.

He didn't have to wait long, not even ten minutes later the front door opened and Gabriella could be heard in the hallway. Cautious of the state she might be in, Troy stepped into the hallway just in time to see Gabriella struggling to take her one of her shoes off, before she fell to the ground while losing her balance in her frustration. Troy walked over to her and without saying a word removed her shoe, before lifting her into his arms and carrying her through to the lounge and settling with her on the couch.

"Talk to me Brie, what's running through that pretty little head of yours?" Troy asked his sniffling wife, as she cuddled into his chest and he ran his hands through her hair.

"It's only just hit me Troy, her life was in my hands for such a long time that day and I was still the one that called it."

"Sweetheart you understand better than most what that coroners report said, the stroke was just too much for Grandma's body to handle, her body had given up the fight and for the last forty minutes or so of her life you were keeping her alive and that's a pretty amazing thing for one person to do babe."

"I know, it's just going into work today tipped me over the edge and…I'm sorry Troy."

"Honey you have nothing to apologise for, you hear me? Nothing, so don't you dare say sorry for this again," Troy's arms wrapped round his wife to keep her securely cuddled on his lap. "So now that you here, what do you want to do? The boys are asleep and Chloe is going to a friend's after nursery so we're good for a while."

"What do I want to do?" Gabriella repeated. "Honestly?"

"Yeah sweetheart, honestly."

"I want to go back to bed and would quiet like it if you'd come with me."

"To bed it is then lovely," Troy responded, as he stood up with his wife tightly cradled against him.

**TGTGTGTG**

The doorbell rang late that afternoon and Chloe ran to answer, having not long been home from her play date.

"Auntie Sophie," She exclaimed after jumping up and opening the door.

"Miss Chloe, what have I told you about answering the door?" Chloe shrugged. "Don't do it young lady, you hear me?"

"Yeah but Auntie Sophie is here," Chloe answered softly, as she wrapped her arms round Gabriella's legs, knowing she was in trouble.

"Alright young lady, just next time don't answer the door, okay?" Chloe nodded and ran back through to the lounge were the rest of the family were playing.

"Hey Sophie, you okay sweetheart?"

"Yeah, I um just had my first meeting with a counsellor at school and she said I could come home early, but I didn't want to go home so I came here, I've text Mum and she says it's okay, Troy's here right?"

"Yeah, he's in the lounge, I got sent home from work this morning, so we're just being lazy and playing with the littlies, wanna join us?" Sophie nodded and after dumping her shoes and bag by the door, followed Gabriella through to the lounge.

"Hey Soph," Troy greeted, as his wife and sister appeared in the lounge. "How'd the meeting go?"

Sophie nodded. "It was good, hard and emotional, but good. I'm gonna see her again in a couple of days, that's how it'll be for a couple of weeks and then the less I wanna harm the less I see her, eventually I won't have meetings with her, she'll just be there if I need her."

"Well I'm glad you think that Soph, it's the first step I'm told. So you here to play?" Sophie nodded and was happily pulled away by Oli.

Troy knew that things weren't gonna be easy for Sophie or Gabriella in the next few weeks, Sophie was still gonna have to talk things through at counselling and Gabriella was still going to have some dark days, but for now, while they had fun playing with the children, nothing else seemed to matter, they were happy, just like Grandma Helena had asked.

**TGTGTGTG**

**It's pretty rubbish and pretty short, but here's the deal guys. **

**The Sophie story line is something I'm going through myself right now, two weeks ago that was me harming myself and now, although I fight not to, I don't harm anymore and by writing about it like this tonight, it's helping me move on, I hope you understand.**

**PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW! THANK YOU!**


	8. Under The Weather?

**Where is everyone? I'm down about five reviews a chapter since the beginning of the story and I'm just wondering where everyone is, anyone know? **

**To those of you who are still reviewing I thank and love you all.**

**Things are going to start jumping about a bit now and I need you to tell me in your review if you don't want time jumps because otherwise, they're going to happen. **

**For the record, it's now April! For the story to progress I need to jump forward, like I said, if you don't like it, tell me!**

Under The Weather?

The smashing of glass woke him from his peaceful slumber and he was quick to get out of bed and investigate, especially when he realised she wasn't in there beside him.

Cautiously he made his way down the stairs and towards the kitchen, where there was still noise coming from, and braced himself for what he was about to find.

He rounded the corner and what he found broke his heart, there, crouched down on the floor, frozen to the spot, surrounded by glass was his wife, and she was bleeding, she'd cut herself on the glass.

"Brie sweetheart, what are you doing hey?" Troy wanted to scoop Gabriella up in his arms, but he couldn't walk any closer without treading on glass. "Just stay where you are a minute lovely, there's glass everywhere, let me get some shoes then I can move you." Gabriella nodded slightly to let Troy know she understood and by the time she'd realised he was gone, he was back and stepping on the glass to lift her up out of it.

Gabriella clung to Troy as soon as she was in his arms and was reluctant to let go when he tried to place her down on the counter next to the sink.

"Sweetie you need to let me put you down, just for a bit, so I can clean up and then we'll take a look at your cuts, alright?" Gabriella nodded.

"It hurts Troy, I didn't mean to do it," Gabriella said, as she held her right hand palm up to show Troy the cut going across it.

"I know you didn't mean to sweetheart, its okay. What are you doing up anyway?" Troy asked, as he pressed some kitchen roll onto the cut to stem the bleeding.

"I woke up and I just couldn't get back to sleep again, no matter how hard I tried, so I came down to get a glass of water. I had a drink, but then when I went to put the glass back in the cupboard it slipped out of my hands and smashed on the floor. I cut my hand trying to tidy it up and I think some bounced and scratched my leg as well, but then you came so I'm not sure, I'm sorry Troy."

"Honey you've got nothing to be sorry for, accidents happen so don't worry. You hold this on your hand for me, while I sweep up the glass and then we'll get you cleaned up okay?" Gabriella nodded and took over putting pressure on her hand, while Troy placed a sweet kiss on her forehead before getting to the task at hand.

Ten minutes later, when Troy was sure that all the glass was gone, he grabbed the family's first aid kit and made his way back over to Gabriella, who had calmed down considerably since he first found her.

"Okay sweetness, lets take a look at your leg first, you're the doctor here so you need to tell me if I do it wrong, okay?" Troy knew how to clean and bandage Gabriella's wounds, but he wanted to get her speaking and distracted from the pain.

"You just need to wipe it Troy and put a plaster on it in case it bleeds more, I don't think there's any glass in it," Troy did as Gabriella had said and soon the slight cut on her leg was all sorted; now onto the cut on her hand.

"Am I okay to just bandage this up or do we need to phone Mum and Dad to come here while we can take a trip to hospital for stitches?" Gabriella took the kitchen roll off of her hand and took her first proper look at it; it wasn't as bad as it felt.

"Well it's pretty much stopped bleeding and if there was glass in it it'd probably still be bleeding, so you need to clean it, then put one of those small sterile dressings on it and then bandage it up so it stays secure and protected."

"Okay, whatever you say Dr Bolton ma'am," Troy got out the supplies he'd need and allowed Gabriella to lean against him as he got to work, it was clear there was something more than not being able to sleep bothering her. "Alright it's all done lovely, you wanna inspect my work while I put all of this away?" Gabriella smiled at Troy and let him move to put everything away, she didn't need to inspect his work, she knew he'd done it right.

"Okay so here's the deal, I'll carry you up to bed, if you tell me what's really bothering you." Gabriella lifted her head to look at Troy and she already had tears welling in her eyes. "Brie, baby girl talk to me, what's going on with you at the minute? You haven't been yourself for a while to be honest."

"I don't feel right Troy, sometimes I feel completely fine, sometimes I'm really tired, sometimes I can't sleep, sometimes I feel really nauseous and sometimes I feel completely under the weather and just wanna stay in bed all day, I just don't know what it is Troy and I think that's what's on my mind the most."

"Oh sweetheart, how long have you been feeling this way?" Troy asked, as he laced their hands together in Gabriella's lap.

Gabriella shrugged. "On and off for a month or so I guess, it kept coming and going so I didn't think anything of it because I thought that it meant I was just coming down with something, but I'm not so sure anymore."

"Alright, I don't want yourself worrying about this anymore, just for the weekend, you've got a four day weekend and I don't want you spending it worrying. So we'll see how things go until Tuesday and then if you're still worried we'll make you a doctor's appointment and in the mean time I want you to tell me every time you don't feel right and we'll keep track of it and then we can tell the doctor if we end up there, that sound good to you?" Gabriella nodded and leaned forward to rest her forehead against Troy's shoulder.

"Okay beautiful lady; let's get you back to bed, shall we?" Gabriella shook her head against Troy's shoulder.

"Can't sleep," she mumbled clearly worn out by this night time occurrence.

"Sweetheart you're almost asleep on me now and I promise I'll hold you tight against me all night and I'll get up with the littlies tomorrow so you can catch up on some much needed sleep."

"I love you," Gabriella mumbled softly, as Troy took her off of the counter and cradled her against him, as he took them back to bed.

"I love you too sweet girl, I love you too."

**TGTGTGTG**

She could do this, she had to do this, it was her only way of moving forward. But most importantly she had to do this for Helena, as her final farewell.

Ever since Sophie had taken an interest in gymnastics, Helena had been there to support her, from taking her to her first class to being there at her first performance, Helena had always been there.

Today would be the first time that Sophie would perform in a gymnastics display since Helena's death and to say she was nervous was a very big understatement.

It was three months to the day when Helena had passed away and although Sophie had been given the opportunity to perform at many displays before hand, she'd turned them all down saying she wasn't ready, but when she'd been offered this one, she and her councillor had decided that this was the one.

Her whole family was here, even five month old Tabatha and she knew that in her heart, watching over her, Helena was here as well, cheering her on and giving her the pep talk she so badly needed right now. But her coach was now announcing the gymnasts to the rather large audience and Sophie knew it was now or never, today was the day she would take part in a gymnastics display for the first since her Grandma's death and she was determined to put nothing but her entire heart and soul into the performance.

An hour later you couldn't have wiped the smile from Sophie's face if you'd of tried, she'd done it and because of that she was on cloud nine.

"Well done Soph you did it, you did it sis, you did it!" Sam was the first to bring Sophie into a hug, as she approached them after her performance. Being her twin, Sam knew exactly how nervous Sophie had been over this performance and just how much it meant to her and she hadn't even said a word, he just knew.

"Congratulations sweetheart, I'm so proud of you and you know that Grandma is too right?" Sophie nodded as she hugged Harold.

"Yeah Grandpa, I know," Sophie answered. "Thank you so much for coming Grandpa, it means so much to me."

"I know it does and that's why I'm here because I know how much this performance meant to you and your Grandma and I couldn't miss out on those flips you did, Sophie they were amazing," Sophie blushed at Harold's comment as she continued to receive congratulations from the rest of her family, confirming to her that taking part in today's display was completely the right decision.

**TGTGTGTG**

Gabriella smiled softly, as she watched Jake interact with Tabatha. He was leaning back against the couch with Tabatha sat between his legs, leaning against his left one, as she 'played' her toy piano for her Daddy, who was more than happy to give her every bit of encouragement she looked for. Gabriella herself was curled up in the corner of the 'L' shaped couch, her arms wrapped round herself and her head resting back against the couch, as she sat silently and watched her family interact around her. Everyone had gone back to Jack and Lucille's after Sophie's performance for a celebratory meal and now everyone was about the house doing their own thing.

"Mrs Gabriella Bolton," Lucille began, as she walked into the lounge with a blanket in her arms. "My son has just been telling me about your accident during the night, you okay?" Lucille asked, as she took a seat next to Gabriella, but not before draping the blanket over her, something Gabriella openly welcomed.

"I'm fine Mum, I've got a scratch on my leg and a cut on my hand, but Troy patched me up, so I'm okay now," Gabriella answered honestly, as she snuggled further down under the blanket.

"What about why you were up in the first place? Troy said you might end up going to the doctor's on Tuesday."

Gabriella shrugged. "I'm just feeling a bit under the weather at the minute Mum and Troy didn't want me worrying on my weekend off so he said that if I was still feeling this way and it was still worrying me on Tuesday, that we'd get me a doctor's appointment, just to see what's making me feel this way I guess."

"Okay well, you look after yourself sweetheart please because we can't have you getting ill, now can we? And make sure that husband of yours pulls his weight, if not you send him in my direction you hear? He's not too old to be told off by his Mum you know."

Gabriella laughed. "Troy's amazing Mum and you know it, but you can tell him off for forgetting to put the toilet seat back down it you like?" Lucille smiled mischievously, before patting Gabriella on the knee and getting up in search of Troy.

**TGTGTGTG**

Waking Gabriella up when there was no urgent need for Gabriella to be up was never a good idea, but clearly this persistent member of her family had forgotten that.

"Mmmm let me sleep," Gabriella mumbled, as she gave into the person behind her.

"Just roll onto your back and open your eyes for a minute please lovely, I've gotta go and help Dad out at the school today so I just wanted to say goodbye and Oli's up but he wants to get into bed with you, if you'll let him?" Gabriella opened her eyes and rolled onto her back to see Troy sat on his side of the bed, showered, dressed and ready to leave, while Oliver was curled up against him, almost asleep again.

"I forgot you were helping Dad today, how long for? Chloe doesn't have nursery today, does she?" Gabriella was barely awake and was remembering bits of information that may not relate to today, adding that to the fact that she was feeling pretty nauseous right now as well, all she wanted to do was sleep.

"I'm helping him for the whole school day because there's some big sports thing going on, but I'm not taking part, I know I'm not allowed, I'll just be organising and refereeing, so I should be back here by four at the latest. And to answer you second question, no Chloe doesn't have nursery today, they're closed for some reason, so she's still tucked up in bed like Matty, but Oli, is here, you okay to have him in with you? Or do you want me to take him back to his bed?" Gabriella shook her head and forced herself to lean up onto her elbows.

"Oli my little man, you wanna come in bed with Mummy?" Gabriella asked, as she lifted the covers up for Oli to see.

"Mummy hug," Oli mumbled, as he crawled over from where he was curled up against Troy and went under the covers next to Gabriella before curling up against her, with his back to her front.

"You just want a hug, don't you hey buddy?" Gabriella said, as she placed the covers down over Oliver and cuddled him close by placing her arm over him.

"Okay, I'm off Brie, but it's only now seven fifteen so you should try and get some more sleep, they should all sleep 'til at least eight." Troy said, as he gave Oli a kiss and then leant over and placed one on Gabriella's forehead as well. "I hope you don't feel too bad today, but if you need me, call me and I'll come home as soon as I can, I don't care if I'm not supposed to." Gabriella mumbled Troy an incoherent answer and he gave her one last kiss on the nose, before grabbing his bag and leaving, hoping that his family would have a good day while he wasn't home.

**TGTGTGTG**

The children had all fallen asleep on the couch and Gabriella was glad the house was finally quiet. All three of them had been running around the house all morning wanting her attention and in between doing the house work and battling sudden bouts of nausea, Gabriella had done her best to entertain them all, but they didn't all want to do the same thing or even be in the same room, so from the moment she'd gotten up, Gabriella had constantly been on the go and it was starting to take it's toll.

As she looked through her diary this morning, something caught Gabriella's eye, something which kept niggling away in her mind and she need to stop that niggling and there was only one way to do it.

She'd sent Lucille a quick text to see if she was free and was now having a rest on the couch surrounded by her sleeping children having decided that the house was as clean as it was going to be for the day, especially with three young children about.

The peacefulness that had surrounded the Bolton household was soon disrupted when Gabriella's phone began to ring, breaking her from her almost sleep like daydream.

"Hey Mum," Gabriella greeted having looked at the caller ID.

"_Hey sweetie, I just got your text and I'm now done for the day, you okay? Do you need me to come over for a while?"_

"Yeah I think I'm okay, I don't need you to come over, but I was wondering if you and Dad would be alright with having these three for the night. It sounds kinda selfish but I really just wanna cuddle up with Troy for the night and not have to bother about dinner and bath and bed time."

"_That's not selfish at all Gabi, you're allowed to have time together and after how you've been feeling recently I'd say that's fair enough, everyone wants to cuddled up and not have to worry when they're __feeling under the weather, so of course your Dad and I will have the littlies for the night, when are you bringing them over?"_

"Well they're asleep right now, which gives me time to get their stuff together, so in about an hour, hour and a half, maybe."

"_Okay honey that's fine, it gives me a chance to change and tidy up a little, I'll see you then."_

"Yeah, bye Mum."

"_Bye sweetie."_ And with a deep breath in Gabriella pushed herself up off of the couch and went about getting the children's belongings ready for their sleepover.

A little over an hour and a half later Gabriella pulled away from Jack and Lucille's house and headed out to get the one thing that would help with that niggling feeling in her mind.

**TGTGTGTG**

He couldn't wait to get home to her and see if she was okay. He'd heard from his Dad that his children were with him and his Mum for the night and that alone had him worried. He tried phoning her but she hadn't answered and when he'd phoned Lucille she had told him that Gabriella had said she was fine and just wanted to spend some time with him, just them, but Troy still wasn't convinced.

He walked into the house and headed through to the kitchen for some reason, what he wasn't quite sure, but upon arriving in there he found that Gabriella had left him a note on the island work top.

_Troy,_

_I've worked out why I'm feeling this way, I don't know why I didn't sooner, I'm in bed right now so come upstairs and I'll explain more._

_Brie x _

Leaving his keys next to the note and his bag and shoes on the kitchen floor, Troy headed upstairs, where true to her word; Gabriella was snuggled down in bed, really not looking all too great.

"Brie sweetheart, you awake?" Troy asked, as walked over to their wardrobe and quickly changed into some more comfy clothes.

"Mmmm yeah I'm awake, how was work?" Gabriella asked, as she moved onto her side so that she was face to face with Troy once he was lying down next to her.

"Really good, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Anyway what's going on? You said you knew why you were feeling this way."

Gabriella took a deep breath and moved so that she was closer to Troy, allowing them both to wrap their arms around each other.

"Troy…" Gabriella's voice was shaky, unsure on how her husband was going to take what she had to say.

"What's going on lovely? Talk to me."

"Troy," Gabriella's voice was stronger now with husband's loving words.

"Yeah Brie?"

"I'm pregnant."

**TGTGTGTG**

**There you go guys, how many of you saw that one coming?**

**I know it's been a while, but the summer officially started here today so **_**hopefully**_** they won't be so far apart from now on, though I can't guarantee anything. **

**PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW! THANK YOU!**


	9. Reactions

**Thanks for all the reviews guys, I'm glad to see there's people back with me!**

**The next one's the last one, so enjoy it while it lasts :)**

**Oh, I wanna do a sequel to Life Changing as my next story, anyone be up for reading it? Let me know!**

Reactions

He couldn't believe what he'd just heard, his wife was pregnant, they were going to have another baby, how fantastically amazing was that?

"Troy please say something, I'm sorry if…" Gabriella was starting to cry over how Troy wasn't responding.

"Brie sweetheart, why are you apologising? Lovely this is amazing news," Troy was so happy over the news he'd only just noticed Gabriella's tears. "Honey why are you crying? Sweetheart please don't cry, don't you want this baby?" Troy was now concerned over his wife's tears and pulled her into his arms in hopes of calming her down.

"Of course I want the baby Troy, it's just it wasn't planned, we haven't been trying, heck we haven't even made love that much recently with all that's been going in, I think I'm just in shock, but it's good shock, I think this could be just what we need." Gabriella responded, as she moved to let Troy climb under the covers with her and then move back into his arms, resting her head comfortably on his chest.

"This is exactly what we need, another baby; Brie this is amazing," Troy said happily, as he moved his hand under the covers to rest over Gabriella's stomach. "There's a baby in there lovely and we made it, another little member of our family, another littlie." Troy's smile was too big for his face, as he leaned up on his elbows to wipe Gabriella's remaining tears off of her face, before covering her face in kisses, showing her exactly how much he loved her.

"I can't believe I didn't figure it out sooner though, I mean all those symptoms I listed off to you the other night they're all signs of being pregnant and I'm a doctor for flips sake, how did I not work it out?"

Troy laughed. "I don't know honey, I guess with the others we were trying for them so we were looking out for the signs, we weren't this time so we weren't really on the look out for anything, although I guess at least this explains your almost constant nausea recently." The smile still hadn't left his face, as he lay with his head propped up on his right arm and his left arm lying protectively over Gabriella's stomach.

"Yeah that's why I came to bed; I threw up before you got home, after taking the test and I figured without the littlies to run around after, a lay down wouldn't do me any harm."

"You really threw up? Are you okay? How come you haven't thrown up before today?" Gabriella diverted her eyes from Troy's and refused to meet his gaze. "You have haven't you? How many times?"

"I don't know how many times Troy, I'm pregnant, this is going to happen, I just don't understand why I didn't pick it up sooner."

"How come you decided to take a test then?" If Gabriella hadn't picked up on her symptoms, Troy wanted to know why she'd taken a test.

"I was looking through my diary for something, Kelly's birthday I think, I don't remember now, anyway as I looked through I worked out that my period is a week late and I didn't think anything to it at the time, but then as time wore on something was niggling at the back of my mind and something in me just wanted to take a test. So, I phoned Mum to see if they'd take the littlies and then on the way home I picked up a test and took it when I got home, that's when I threw up, left you the note and came up to bed."

Troy chuckled at his wife's explanation. "So did you ask Mum to take the littlies so that we could celebrate?" He leaned over and planted butterfly kisses all over Gabriella's face.

"No Troy I didn't," Gabriella answered making Troy cut off his kisses. "I asked Mum to take them so that we could spend some time together, just you and me and because I feel like total crap right now, like I could throw up any minute and I just don't feel like running round after them all evening."

"You really feel like you could throw up any minute?" Troy questioned, any thoughts of celebrating now replaced with concern.

"Yeah," Gabriella mumbled, as she made Troy lay on his back so that she could cuddle into his side.

"Well then I guess we'll just have to celebrate like this then won't we? Do you want anything to eat?" Now that she was carrying their child, Troy wanted to make sure that Gabriella was eating, even if she did feel bad.

"Not right now Troy, I just wanna let my stomach settle first then I'll think about eating, can we sleep for a bit?"

"If that's what you want lovely then of course we can, teaching high school students sports all day is pretty tiring." Troy informed her, as he briefly got up to close the curtains and then climbed back into bed, pulling his beautiful wife close.

"I love you Troy," Gabriella mumbled, as sleep finally pulled her into its grasps.

"I love you too honey…the both of you."

**TGTGTGTG**

"Okay talk to me, what's going on?" Kelly asked, as she and Gabriella sat in the staff room on Thursday on their lunch break.

"What _are_ you talking about?" Is the excitement of being a year older on Saturday going to your head or something?"

"No, I'm completely sane thank you very much, for now anyway. What I'm talking about is the fact that you've asked to be put on light duties for a while and you never ask for that to happen…unless."

"Unless what Kel? I've been feeling a bit under the weather recently, you know that and Troy and I decided that I'd be best off on light duties for a while, that's all."

"No it's not," Kelly answered determinedly. "You only ever ask to be put on light duties when you're pregnant and if Troy helped you to decide this then you are…you're pregnant aren't you?" Gabriella bit her lip and nodded slowly.

"I'm due November first," she admitted softly, as Kelly got up to give her a hug.

"Gabi that's amazing, I bet Troy's happy."

"Yeah he's over the moon, he's been on cloud nine since I told him on Monday, we got it made official on Tuesday and we get our first hospital scan in about two weeks cause I'm two and a half months gone."

"I haven't missed anything here have I? You two weren't really trying for another one were you?" Gabriella shock her head as she took a sip of her tea.

"We weren't trying at all, I was still on my birth control and we think we must've forgotten a condom a couple of times and we both know that the pill on its own won't protect one hundred percent. But no, after the initial shock of it all, I'm all for it, we just need to tell everyone now, you're the first one to know other than me and Troy."

"In that case I'm honoured, when does everyone else find out?"

"We're gonna try and explain to the littlies tonight, although we've learnt from past experience that they don't really start asking questions until I'm showing. We're gonna tell everyone at Mum and Dad's on Sunday, but we're gonna visit Grandpa and tell him on his own on Saturday, it just feels right that way, ya know? It's like Grandma is gone, but we're bringing another human into this world, like she's somehow made that happen."

"In some weird crazy way, I get what you're saying," the pair shared some more laughs over lunch as Gabriella explained how she figured things out and realised that by telling Kelly she was pregnant, things were suddenly that little bit more real.

**TGTGTGTG**

Chloe Bolton was a very clever little girl, she knew there was something going on with her parents right now, her Dad was always smiling and constantly checking with her Mum that she was okay, they were up to something.

"Co!" Oli shouted his name for his big sister as he ran into the lounge and tried to jump up onto the couch next to her, he didn't succeed and fell back onto the floor landing with a thud just as Troy walked in.

"Oliver Bolton, what are you doing?" Oli looked innocent, as he tipped his head backwards trying to see Troy. "Do you want to sit next to Chloe?" Troy asked, as he walked up behind Oli who was still looking at Troy with his head tipped backwards. He didn't answer his Dad, but instead pulled himself up so that he was standing and gripped onto the couch in another attempt to get onto it.

"I think you should just help him Daddy," Chloe said quietly, as she watched Gabriella and Matthew come into the room.

"I think that's probably a good idea princess," Troy agreed, as he lifted Oliver up onto the couch next to Chloe and then sat down next to him. Oliver looked slightly shocked to find that he was suddenly on the couch, but now that he was there he happily kissed Chloe sloppily on the cheek before moving to sit on Troy's lap.

"Oli you soppy date," Gabriella said, as she sat down next to Troy before pulling Matty up onto her lap. "Why don't you move closer to Daddy Chloe, so that we're all sitting together 'cause Daddy and I have something to tell you all." Chloe did as she was asked and moved closer to Troy so that he could wrap his spare arm around her, she knew that there was something going now, her parents had something to tell them all.

"Okay guys," Troy started. "Me and your Mum were wondering how you would feel to get a little brother or sister."

"I would like a sister," Chloe said quietly.

Troy and Gabriella laughed. "I know you would honey, but would you be okay with a little brother as well? You know we can't control if the baby is a boy or a girl."

"I know Mummy," Chloe answered. "I've just always wanted a little sister, have you got another baby in your tummy?" Being the oldest Chloe had had this conversation when Gabriella was expecting Matthew and Oliver and knew that the answer to her question was probably yes.

"Yeah sweetie I have, are you alright with that?"

"Yes," Chloe answered. "I like being a big sister. This means Oli won't the smallest anymore."

"That's right princess, what do you say Oli? You want to be a big brother?"

"Big bother," Oli answered happily making his parents laugh.

"You're right there buddy, you are a big bother," Gabriella said, as she turned her attention to the quietest member of the family. "What do you think Matty? Do you think you'd like to be a big brother again?" Matty simply nodded his head before cuddling himself against Gabriella and closing his eyes.

"I think that's him telling us he wants to go to bed," Troy said, as he stood up with Oli in his arms. "Chloe do you want me or Mummy to give you your bath tonight?" Oliver and Matthew had already had their baths and were already in their pyjamas, so whoever didn't help Chloe with her bath, would be the one to tuck the boys in and if they didn't fall asleep straight away, read them a bed time story.

"Mummy please," Chloe answered, as she got up from the couch and started to make her way upstairs followed by the rest of her family.

"I think that went pretty well," Troy said, as he and Gabriella carried the boys upstairs.

"I think you're right, if anyone was not gonna like me being pregnant it would be these three, so with them told, everyone else should be easy."

**TGTGTGTG**

Gabriella was feeling absolutely rotten, she'd been up in the night being sick, she'd woken up and had thrown up and on the car ride to Harold's she'd thrown up twice, today was simply not her day. Troy had told her that they didn't need to tell Harold today and that they could simply tell him tomorrow with everyone else, but Gabriella had insisted and Kelly and Oscar had already arrived so there was no backing out now.

Today was indeed Kelly's twenty eighth birthday and although there were plenty of things she could be doing today, she and Oscar had offered to baby sit the littlies, knowing that if a member of the family did it, the children were likely to let slip on Gabriella's condition.

So now, after Gabriella had been sick _again,_ she and Troy sat cuddled on Harold's couch as he got her a glass of water.

"Not that I don't like seeing you two because I do," Harold said, as he came back with the water. "But you really look like you should be in bed Gabi."

"I'm fine Grandpa, me being sick is actually part of the reason we're here today, we've got something to tell you."

"Okay," Harold sat up and looked more closely at the young couple in front of him, there was definitely something different about them today. "I'm all ears."

"Grandpa," Troy began slowly. "Gabriella's pregnant, we're expecting another baby."

Harold didn't have an answer to this, of all the things Troy and Gabriella could've said to him, this was the last thing that came to mind and he needed some time to let it sink in. The room was silent as Harold let the news settle in, until Gabriella shot from her seat and headed for the downstairs bathroom.

"I'm sorry Grandpa," Troy apologised, as he got up to follow Gabriella. "She's having a really rotten day today."

"I understand Troy, go and take care of her." Harold smiled softly at his Grandson, as he rushed from the room to take care of his wife.

Five minutes later the couple arrived back in the lounge and Harold stood to meet them, bringing Gabriella into a hug when she reached him. "Congratulations guys, I'm so happy for you and I know that your Grandma would be as well."

"Thanks Grandpa," Gabriella said, as they pulled back from their hug. "We wanted to tell you first before everyone else, it just felt right, but now I really wanna go home and go to bed, I know that seems kinda rude."

"Gabi that's not rude at all, I'm surprised you even managed to leave your bed today, you go home and rest and I'll see you at Jack and Lucille's tomorrow?"

"We'll be there Grandpa, we need to tell the rest of the family tomorrow, there are only you, the littlies and Kelly and Oscar who know so far, although to bed fair, Kelly did guess." Troy admitted laughing.

Harold chuckled softly as he led the pair to the door. "I'll see you tomorrow then guys and congratulations once again," Harold hugged his guests as they left and watched as Troy led his wife to the car, his protectiveness over her, more obvious now than ever.

**TGTGTGTG**

It was quiet in the main Bolton household, as everyone settled in the lounge to watch the children play and to chat amongst themselves, but today was different, they could all feel it. Gabriella was looking off colour and had barely touched her meal and Troy was being incredibly protective over her, even more so than normal, little did they know Troy and Gabriella's children were about to help them out.

"Grandma," Chloe began as she made her way over to Lucille. "I'm a big sister, right?"

"Yeah that's right sweetie," Lucille answered, as she pulled Chloe up onto the couch in between her and Jack.

"Me a big bwother," Matthew said, as he too approached Lucille and was pulled up onto her lap.

"That you are Matty," Lucille answered, not sure what her Grandchildren were getting at as Oliver made his way over as well.

"Me too," Oli said, as he pointed at Matty and was pulled up join him on Lucille's lap.

"No sweetie, you're not a big brother."

"He will be Grandma," Chloe said while sneaking a look at her parents. "In November." Lucille looked at her Granddaughter, then at her Grandsons, then over at her son and daughter-in-law, who were cuddled up in the bend of the couch. She looked at how they were sat, Gabriella cuddled into Troy's side, with his arms wrapped around her, resting securely on her _stomach._

Troy had to laugh at his Mum's expression as the penny seemed to drop. "Yes Mum, before you even ask, Gabi's pregnant, a little over two and a half months."

Over the next ten minutes everyone congratulated Troy and Gabriella on the pregnancy and their inventiveness over getting he children to announce it.

Everyone was happy for the family and Gabriella realised, now that everyone close to them knew, they were opening a new chapter in their lives, one they were more than willing to start.

**TGTGTGTG**

**There it is people, hope you liked it!**

**The next one is the last one, how sad?**

**Please let me know if you'd read a sequel to Life Changing.**

**PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW! THANK YOU!**


	10. Family

**Thank you for all the reviews for this story, it means so much to me, you're all amazing!**

**The sequel to Life Changing will probably happen, I just need to know that people are interested, are you?**

**This is kind of, in some ways an epilogue because a fair bit of time has passed, but either way this is the last chapter to What I've Been Looking For The Sequel. **

Family

Her head was thumping, the children were screaming, the _babies _were crying and the only thing keeping her going, was the thought that as soon as her husband was home she was out of there. She didn't know where to or even if her legs would get her there, she just needed to get out, she wasn't sure she could do this anymore.

"GUYS!" She shouted just about reaching her breaking point. "Please be quiet, all of you, Daddy will be home soon and then you can shout at him, but please just be quiet." The noise lessened, but didn't stop completely and she was over the moon to hear the front door open and the children run to greet her husband.

He crouched down to greet them all as they charged at him, but as he stood again he realised that their overexcited ness hadn't gone down too well with their Mum.

"I'm going," she told him, as she picked up her bag and put on her shoes. "The _girls_ won't stop crying and these three won't stop screaming and I simply can't think straight, so you deal with them for a while, they behave for you." And with that she was gone, out the front door and down their driveway before he could even attempt to stop her.

Sighing, Troy put his shoes and bag away before crouching back down to his children's level. "You guys haven't really been helping Mummy out today, have you?" The three eldest Bolton children shook their heads slowly as they realised they'd done wrong.

"We didn't mean to Daddy, we just wanted to play and Mummy didn't want to play with us so we played together." Chloe explained quietly.

"That's because you're Mummy is really tired at the minute guys, she's not getting very much sleep because she's always up with your_ sisters_ and then during the day she's doing housework and looking after _all_ of you at the same time, that can't be easy for her, can it?" The three children once again shook their heads and Troy hoped that they'd gotten the message; he didn't like being the bad guy. "Here's the deal, we're all gonna go into the lounge and you guys are gonna sit nicely and watch some TV while I see to your _sisters_ and then once they're asleep and happy, I'll see if I can find out where Mummy's gone, sound good?"

"We didn't want Mummy to leave," Chloe told Troy, as he set them up with their favourite telly programme.

"I know you didn't sweetie, it's just really hard for her at the minute and it looks like she just couldn't handle anymore today. It's like when the _babies_ are crying really loudly and you go to your room to get away from it, that's just what Mummy has done, but she's just left the house to do it, understand?" Chloe nodded her understanding and allowed Troy to go and tend to her _sisters._

Troy really had no idea where Gabriella had gone and he wanted more than anything to go after her, but he couldn't, he had five children to take care of and he knew that was what she wanted him to do. He knew she wouldn't go far, she didn't look as though she'd be able to, he just hoped she'd stay safe and that she wouldn't be too hard to find.

Walking over to the beige coloured bassinette at the side of the room, Troy found his one month old, _twin baby girls._ Yeah that's right, at Gabriella's twelve week scan, the couple found out that they were having twins, which although at the time was shocking, really isn't all that surprising considering all of Troy's siblings are twins.

Milly Helena and Rosie Helena were born on the first of November at nine thirty seven pm and are an amazing mix of their parents. They both gained Gabriella's tanned skin and facial features along with Troy's sandy hair colour and bright blue eyes, despite sounding identical they girls aren't, as Milly is bigger than her sister and has that bit more hair, making it that bit more easier for them to be told apart.

"Hey now baby girls, what's all this fussing about, hey?" Troy leant over the bassinette and rubbed his daughters' stomachs in hopes of getting them to calm down, as they whimpered in their worked up state. But as Troy continued his calming rub, the girls soon calmed down and their eye lids slowly started to droop. Happy that they were well on their way to sleep, Troy covered Milly and Rosie with the blanket they'd kicked off and moved to crouch down behind his children on the floor. "Milly and Rosie are finally asleep guys so I need you to be really quiet, but I also need you to put all of your toys away where they belong, do you think you can do that without waking them up?" The three children all nodded silently and then started on the task they'd been set, while Troy headed through to the kitchen to see what needed to be done in there, not much it seemed, just the dishwasher needed unloading, something he could easily do while phoning people to try and find his wife.

As he reached in to his pocked to pull out his phone, the house phone rang and Troy was quick to answer it, not wanting the twins to wake up, after them finally being asleep.

"Hello?" He answered, as he began to unload the dishwasher.

"Troy, it's me."

"Oh hey Mum, I was just about to call you, have you…?"

"She's here Troy," Lucille interrupted, knowing what her son wanted to ask.

"Huh? What?"

"Gabriella, Troy, she's here."

"She is? Is she okay? She walked out pretty much as soon as I walked in the door, it seems like the littlies have driven her over the edge."

"Honestly Troy she's not doing too great, she's been sick twice since being here and hasn't stopped crying since I found her sat on the front porch. She's curled up on the couch right now, but I think you need to come over here and have a proper chat with her, I don't think you realise just how bad she's feeling and how much she's been suffering recently."

"I'd of run after her when she left if I could Mum, but she left me with the littlies and I can't exactly bring them with me, they're the main reason she walked out in the first place."

"I know honey, that's why your Dad is on his way round with Sam and Sophie to take over looking after the littlies while you come here and talk to Gabi, they left a while ago, so they should be there soon." No sooner had Lucille said that then a knock was heard at the front door and Troy heard Chloe running to answer it, muttering something about not waking the babies on her way.

"They've just arrived Mum, so I'll brief them on the littlies and be straight over," Troy told Lucille, as he stopped unloading the dishwasher, leaving the rest for someone else to do.

"Alright sweetie, I'll see you soon," and with that Lucille and Troy hung up and Troy quickly spoke to his family, eager to get to his wife.

**TGTGTGTG**

Troy walked into his parent's home, just in time to see his Mum guiding Gabriella back towards the lounge from the direction of the downstairs bathroom. Both women heard the door shutting and looked in Troy's direction, Gabriella's tears falling harder as her guilt for walking out on her family came back to the forefront of her mind.

Lucille tightened her grip on her daughter-in-law and Troy quickly made his way towards them, taking Gabriella from Lucille's arms and holding her tightly against him, as she let out all of her pent out emotions.

"I'm so sorry Brie, the girls have been here a month now and I haven't been paying you nearly enough attention, I'm so sorry lovely," Gabriella's only answer was a distraught sob, causing Troy to pick her up and take her through to the lounge, where he sat down on the couch and held her tightly in his lap.

"She was just sick again Troy," Lucille said, as she appeared in the doorway. "This isn't just about the littlies wearing her out, she's coming down with something too."

"Oh sweetheart I'm sorry. You should've told me how you were feeling and I would've taken some time off from work, you know I would've been able to. Why did you leave though Brie? Why didn't you just stay and talk to me?"

"I just c-couldn't take it a-anymore, they w-were being s-so loud and I c-couldn't get the t-twins to go to s-sleep and I j-just needed to g-get away from it a-all, I'm s-sorry Troy."

"Sweetness you've got nothing to be sorry for, nothing at all. Now how long have you been feeling ill?"

"Only a f-few days, I thought I was j-just tired at f-first, but then I felt l-like I w-wanted to be sick a couple of t-times and then, I dunno, I felt l-like there was so much to do at home and the t-twins were always c-crying for me and the other three just wouldn't s-stop and then t-today it was j-just too much."

"It's alright honey, I'm here for you now and I'm gonna help. I'm gonna take some more time off from work for a bit, I think I went back to early. Dad's happy to be there by himself and has already said he will be if you need me. You're gonna focus on getting better and getting some sleep and I'm gonna look after the littlies and bring the twins to you at night when they want feeding, maybe you could even use the breast pump sometimes, so that I can feed them sometimes as well." Gabriella nodded her head as she wiped some tears from her face.

"I want my bed," she murmured softly, as she snuggled herself closer to Troy, nestling her head in the crook of his neck.

"Well then how about I take you home and put you to bed and I'll stay with you and hold you until you fall asleep and then I'll go and relieve Dad, Sophie and Sam and take care of the littlies for the rest of the evening and I'll only disturb you when the girls are desperate for food, sound good?"

"Uh huh," Gabriella mumbled tiredly, as her sleep deprivation and sickness began to show through.

"Okay then lovely, lets go," Troy said softly, as he stood up with Gabriella still in his arms and then carried her out to the car, where he gently strapped her in and covered her with a blanket Lucille handed him, while also placing Gabriella's bag and shoes by her feet.

"Thanks for looking after her Mum; I really haven't been paying her enough attention since the girls were born."

"It's not your fault sweetie, you two may of already had three children before the twins were born but you've never had twins before, this is all new to you, it's different than just having one baby and it's just going to take you a little while to adjust. But her being ill isn't your fault Troy, it's just one of those things which just so happens to have crept up on her now, it doesn't have anything to do with anything else."

Troy sighed. "I know Mum; I just can't help but feel some of this is my fault."

"Maybe it is sweetheart, but there's nothing you can do about it now, so take Gabi home, put her to bed, get her settled and then look after your children. It will all fall into place Troy; you just have to give it time, alright?" Troy nodded, as he and Lucille shared a hug, before he got in the car and took his now sleeping wife, home to bed.

**TGTGTGTG**

"Can I Daddy? Please Daddy, I'll be careful Daddy, can I please?" Chloe jumped around the kitchen, as Troy warmed up two bottles of milk, which he'd managed to get Gabriella to express with the pump before she fell into a much needed deep sleep.

"Okay, okay Chloe calmed down princess please. Go and sit in the corner of the couch and put a cushion under your left arm and then I'll come through and help you, don't try and pick one of your sisters up, you hear?" Chloe nodded enthusiastically and ran through to the lounge with Troy not far behind her.

Matthew and Oliver had been warn out by their play time with Sam and Sophie and so Troy had put them to bed for a nap, not long after his siblings and Dad had gone, leaving him and Chloe to take care of the twins' feeding time.

"Alright Chloe, you can feed Rosie because she's smaller and easier for you to hold, sound good?" Chloe nodded eagerly and held her arms out ready for Troy to place Rosie into. "Okay, now support her head like we've told you to," Troy placed Rose into Chloe's arms, her body weight being supported by her big sister's left arm and the cushion underneath it. "That's it," Troy encouraged. "Now place the bottle in her mouth and hold her still while she drinks it, okay?" Chloe nodded slowly, her tongue sticking out in concentration.

Troy smiled softly at how well Chloe dealt with her younger siblings; she was an amazing big sister to all four of them and had been since the first time she'd laid eyes on Matthew.

"Okay Miss Molly," Troy said, as he picked her up from the bassinette. "Let's make you happy by feeding you shall we?" Milly blinked her electric blue eyes at Troy, as he settled himself on the couch next to Chloe and soon Molly was happily being fed like her sister.

**TGTGTGTG**

Family is something we all have, whether we like it or not. Every family is different, there's no one group the same, but I think you'll agree with me when I say that this family is truly unique.

Our time with them has come to end now, we've followed them for a big part of their lives and I think we probably know them better than they know themselves, but right now, it's time, for the last time, for you to find out where they all are in their lives right now.

Harold is now living in a residential home, after realising that he couldn't keep up with the work needed on his and Helena's home and that his money would be better if he put it into some new accommodation. He lives in his own little bungalow on a larger complex and has made some lovely new friends. Helena is never far from his mind, but he knows that she would want him to be happy and since she passed away, this is the happiest he's been.

Jack and Lucille are as happy as ever and are enjoying being the heads of their ever growing family, never being far away from their children when they're in need. They're incredibly happy in their lives right now and hope they'll stay this happy forever, if not even happier.

Sam and Sophie are as happy as any thirteen year old is; they're enjoying life to the full. Sam is doing amazingly well with his basketball and Sophie is excelling as a gymnast. The pair take up any baby sitting opportunity that arise with their nieces and nephews and happily feed them sweets and sugary foods all day, only handing them back once they're really hyper and no where near being tired. Both are looking forward to moving on and growing up in life and living it to the full, exactly like their siblings.

Lillie and Pete are still happily living together and between you and me, Pete just asked Jack's permission to marry Lillie, of course Jack's answer was yes, as I'm sure Lillie's will be too. Lillie now has full ownership of her hair saloon, as her business partner decided to move on from hair dressing, but Lillie's business is doing well and her customers just keep on coming back. Pete is still enjoying teaching children to swim; the smile on their faces when they swim further than they ever have before is something that will always brighten his day. The pair are happily looking forward in life and to a future with each other.

Amber and John are looking forward to their wedding in the spring and are growing more and more in love with the anticipation. Amber is still happily working as a nursery nurse and is now head nursery nurse, something that has gained her a lot of respect from the children and parents a like. John is still happily working for Jake and enjoying the fun and light hearted atmosphere that comes with working there. The couple can't wait for their wedding and honeymoon and their future of a big house and hopefully a family.

Jessie and Craig are now the proud parents of Benjamin James Hilton who was born only two weeks after Milly and Rosie. The couple are the happiest they've ever been and while Jessie is staying at home with Ben, Craig is still working at the garage as a car salesman and being in part ownership with Jake, he's been able to wiggle his hours about to spend more time with his family.

Jazzy and Jake are still happy with little Tabatha, who now that she's found her feet, is a little monkey to keep an eye on. Jake is still keeping his garage running and is never short of customers, while Jazzy is still managing to run the stables in Jessie's absence, although the sisters are always in contact and often bringing their children into work with them, if they're desperately needed at the stables. The couple are happy with their family and looking forward to the future when they're sure their family will grow.

Troy and Gabriella have decided that this is it for their family and Troy has had a small procedure done to make that definite. When they first met, they never dreamed they would be where they are today, with five children and as happy as they'll ever be. Gabriella, never in her wildest dreams, dreamt that someone would actually fall in love with her, let alone marry her and have children with her and Troy? Well he'd never really thought about love or marriage…until he set eyes on Gabriella. Everyday they're thankful that Jack and Lucille allowed Gabriella to stay with them and everyday they're thankful that, unknowingly, they found what they'd been looking for.

**TGTGTGTG**

**There it is guys, the end, I hope you liked it. It's not as long as it could be or as long as some of the others, but I hope it's just as good.**

**PLEASE tell me if you'd read the sequel to Life Changing, I need to know!**

**Thank you Charli for your idea, it spurred me on :)**

**It's finally the end guys; there is no more, thank you all so much for reviewing and for one last time: **

**PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW! THANK YOU!**


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